Taking Games Seriously

Historians documenting the expanding influences of ʻsystems thinkingʼ in the UnitedStates during the Cold War period have emphasized the role of computers in spreading the
gospel of systems to professional audiences while neglecting another simulation technology in
broader use. This presentation will examine efforts to teach systems analysis to the
communities served by the federally-organized Model Cities program of the 1960s and 1970s
using that overlooked innovation: operational games. The story of the Model Cities games
suggests new directions for the history and historiography of systems analysis and simulation.

Jennifer S. Light is Associate Professor of Communication Studies, History, and Sociology, and
Director of the Media, Technology and Society PhD program at Northwestern University. She is
the author of two books: From Warfare to Welfare: Defense Intellectuals and Urban Problems
in Cold War America (2003) and The Nature of Cities: Ecological Visions and the American
Urban Professions,1920-1960 (2009), both with Johns Hopkins University Press.

This event is made possible with support from the History of Science, Technology,
Medicine, and Environment Program (Badash Fund) and the Center for Spatial Studies.

jwil 05.i.09