Bill Gamson, Sociologist and Inventor of Games, Dies at 87

Soon after arriving at Michigan, he began creating immersive classroom simulation games, like Simulated Society, in which students dealt with real-world issues of conflict, inequality, injustice and social order and sought solutions as a group.

“If the society is to be a valuable learning experience, we will need your cooperation,” Professor Gamson wrote in his book, “SIMSOC: Simulated Society, Participant’s Manual” (2000, with Larry Peppers). “Cooperation in this context means taking your objectives in the society seriously. We have tried to create a situation in which each of you has goals that depend on other people in the society for their achievement.”

He left Michigan in 1982 for Boston College, where he and Charlotte Ryan co-founded the Media Research and Action Project. The project helped unions, movements and grass-roots community groups better craft their message to the news media.

Professor Gamson was a past president of the American Sociological Association and a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978. He retired from teaching in 2000 but remained with the media project until 2017.

In addition to his son and wife, who taught sociology at the University of Michigan and the University of Massachusetts, Boston, he is survived by his daughter, Jenny Gamson; five grandchildren; and his sister, Mary Edda Gamson.

Professor Gamson’s interest in social movements never waned. In 2013, he and Micah Sifry, a writer and family friend, edited an issue of The Sociological Quarterly about the Occupy movement.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/us/bill-gamson-dead.html