capitalist toys

DESIGN: Szymon Zakrzewski

Poland

make me! 2021

Capitalist toys is a project of teaching aids dedicated to students of graduation classes of primary school. It touches upon the issues of socio-economic inequalities in the neoliberal capitalist system and proposes alternative solutions to those problems.

The project consists of four toys. The jumping rope of exploitation is too long to be used single-handedly. It needs three additional people to rotate it. Only one person is playing, while the others work. The board for throwing gliders illustrates disproportions between salaries in society and an unfair start in life for young people. The migration labyrinth visualizes the chances of migrants moving to another country. Finally, the mortgage puzzle shows our mortgage application options. Each of the toys can be modified in a way that allows students and teachers to look for different ways of escaping the deadlock.

The project’s purpose is to make students aware of the challenges that await them when they enter adulthood and explain the sources of the circumstances that already affect them.

The problem of socio-economic inequalities has not been given sufficient attention in educational projects and publications. This project is therefore a supplement to the missing content in the core curriculum. It constitutes a creative space in which students will be able to look for the solutions to present-day issues of inequality and exclusion on their own.