Eric Gordon is a researcher and game designer who investigates how games and social media can enhance civic learning and local engagement. He is the director of the Engagement Game Lab and an associate professor in the department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College. He is the co-author (with Adriana de Souza e Silva) of the book Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World (2011) and the author of the Urban Spectator: American Concept-cities from Kodak to Google (2010).
His game Participatory Chinatown was designed to engage people in Boston’s Chinatown in the city’s master planning process. It was named “best direct impact” game in 2011 by the organization Games for Change. More recently, his game Community PlanIt, which is a mission-based game platform for local community planning, has been played in Boston to inform policy in the Boston Public Schools and in Detroit to inform the city’s master plan. It will be expanded to Philadelphia and other cities in the coming year.
While at the Berkman Center, Eric will study the impact of game-based learning on local civic engagement and explore how new technologies can enhance citizenship and collective efficacy.
