Gamificação para a cidadania: aplicação de jogos para democratizar o conhecimento sobre políticas públicas e instituições do setor público.

Abstract

The present study aimed to understand how the public power, more specifically the Legislative Power of Pernambuco, can use the language of games to, in a playful way, promote knowledge about its attributions and the public policies created by it, with views on the political formation and the city. Specifically, it was evaluated how the relations between society and the State, at different historical moments, impacted the construction of the concept of citizenship and the exercise of citizen participation; we seek to understand how public communication, through innovative gaming strategies, can promote political literacy and public engagement; the broad context of games is analyzed, as well as their concepts, with the purpose of understanding their potential, mainly educational; and, finally, it was presented how the prototype of a digital game could address content about the Legislative Process, based on a popular initiative proposal. Methodologically, the research had an exploratory phase with the objective of promoting a mapping of the topic addressed. To this end, numerous publications were produced on games, politics, innovation in the public sector, public communication, political literacy, social control, among others. In addition, data were collected from the application of a questionnaire on Google Forms, with high school students, from public and state schools, over 16 years old, to better understand the target audience of this study. The results obtained in the research were: in relation to entertainment preferences, young people prefer to play (27.8%); listening to music (27.8%); leave (11.1%); and reading books (5.6%). With regard to the format of the games, the majority (94.4%) reported preferring electronic games. Regarding the frequency of use of electronic games, it was found that 44.4% use the game every other day; and 38.9% every day. The majority of people interviewed (72.2%) also stated that they use their cell phones more as a means of playing games. Regarding the final question, related to the format they would choose to learn about public power, 50% of students reported that they preferred digital games to aid learning; 27% preferred lectures; 11% books, and 11% comic books. Finally, it was concluded that games are effective innovation tools for building meaning and motivation. This scientific research proposes, however, that educational games or persuasive games developed by public institutions are guided by ethical issues, always having democracy as a guideline.