Conflict in Community-Based Design: A Case Study of a Relationship Breakdown

Community-based design efforts rightly seek to reduce the power differences between researchers and community participants by aligning with community values and furthering their priorities. However, what should designers do when key community members' practices seem to enact an oppressive and harmful structure? We reflect on our two-year-long engagement with a non-profit organization in southern India that supports women subjected to domestic abuse or facing mental health crises. We highlight the organizational gaps in knowledge management and transfer, which became an avenue for our design intervention. During design, we encountered practices that upheld caste hierarchies. These practices were expected to be incorporated into our technology. Anticipating harms to indirect stakeholders, we resisted this incorporation. It led to a breakdown in our relationship with the partner organization. Reflecting on this experience, we outline pluralistic pathways that community-based designers might inhabit when navigating value conflicts. These include making space for reflection before and during engagements, strategically repositioning through role reframing or appreciative inquiry, and exiting the engagement if necessary.