Discussion Project --
Castaways
In this exercise you are to imagine that you have been
thrown into a certain situation (one of the scenarios described below), and
then negotiate a "social contract" (an agreement about how you will
manage your affairs). In some cases I
will arbitrarily assign certain roles to various members of the group.
Scenario
#1
You
were all passengers on a ship that sank in a storm. Now you are in a lifeboat that has been drifting for several
days. You know that you are in a part
of the world where the few islands are uninhabited and where ships seldom
go. You do not expect to be rescued for
many years, if at all. You have sighted
an island and are paddling towards it.
You have no idea what resources that island will contain or what sorts
of skills will be needed in order to make use of those resources. You do know that some of your group members
are skilled at fishing, some at agriculture; some are very clever with their
hands, others are quite strong, others can run very fast, and still others are
very good at finding edible plants in the wild. But you don't know whether any or all of these abilities will be
useful under the circumstances you will find on the island. One of your members has made the following
speech: "Before we land, I think
we should agree about how we will operate when we get there. Is it going to be share and share alike, or
is it going to be each person for him or herself, or what?" What agreement do you think should be
made? Why?
Scenario
#2
Your group has been shipwrecked on
an uninhabited island. You do not
expect to be rescued for many years, if at all.