Conflicts between states with territorial disputes, civil wars with violence against the population, national and transnational terrorism, political instability with riots and protests between civilians and law enforcement, organized forms of criminal violence, and violence for religious reasons generating migratory pressures.
The independent organization Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED, 2021) reports the existence of over sixty conflicts worldwide. Many of these have a direct correlation with the issue of environmental sustainability, from resource scarcity and control to the consequences of climate change. But how does the peacebuilding process-system work, how does it happen? And, above all, is it possible to design for peace?
Design for Peace Ecosystems is a distributed didactical initiative that offers a multicultural design challenge dedicated to exploring innovative solutions for peace ecosystems. An “Ecosystem of Peace” is a concept of socially and environmentally sustainable peace that emerges from the interaction between the field of peace studies – an interdisciplinary area of study that deals with the construction of positive peace – understood not as the absence of conflict but as the product of dedicated actions – and the field of environmental studies.
Working for peace ecosystems, therefore, means working to develop actions and projects that aim for sustainable and inclusive development of communities and territories, capable of reducing inequalities, strengthening the institutions that guide local communities, to sustain peace and prevent conflicts.
Design can play a role in this process by working on the collection, synthesis, and analysis of data, designing, and developing solutions related to product-service innovation, systemic innovation, social innovation, and circular innovation that can support local territories and communities in the development of peace initiatives. This starting partnership will be successively expanded with a network of actors, including private enterprises, public institutions, museums, NGOs, and Governments.
Design for Peace Ecosystems is also a new research network open to the participation of universities, public and private institutions, businesses, and citizen associations interested in various aspects of the peace economy.
For those interested in joining the network, please write here.