Design Research Need in Helping to Address International Conflict Intersections in Southeast Asia

Design-led research on conflicts arising from anthropogenic and environmental factors, such as that from forest management in Indonesia, are largely under-represented in the design research community. In this position paper we discuss the need for more design research in this area. We present the complex intersecting challenges in health, education, local communities and environment, surrounding conflicts arising from forest management in Indonesia and their spillovers into other countries in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia. We propose a design-led community-based approach to conflict resolution that anticipates the human-drivers and threats behind potential emerging conflicts in such contexts; by applying participatory design principles and methods, informing preventive measures to those conflicts. We envisage that this will generate debate on the strategic need to embed more design research practices in international conflict intersections research.