Design Thinking and Urban Community Development: East Bangkok

Pattarachit Choompol Gozzoli, Theerada Rongrat and Roberto Bruno Gozzoli
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Pattarachit Choompol Gozzoli: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom 73170, Thailand
Theerada Rongrat: Faculty of Architecture and Design, Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin, Nakhon Pathom 73170, Thailand
Roberto Bruno Gozzoli: Tourism and Hospitality Management Division, Mahidol University International College, Nakhon Pathom 73170, Thailand

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-25

Abstract: This research focuses on community development and ways in which community members can express their opinions and maintain well-being. However, in many contexts, these voices have been enfeebled through top-down approaches, lack of a concrete scenario, and attention to community problems, all of which are frequently associated with prejudices based on social status, education, or gender. For the first time within an urban context, the Ban Bu/Wat Suwannaram community in Bangkok, Thailand, has been given the opportunity to voice their opinions about the community, the direction it should take, and the overall improvement to be made, without the constriction of external authorities. This study applies design thinking, which despite being one of the major trends in business over the last couple of decades, is not generally used to address social issues. Since design thinking requires data collection and the creation of a model/prototype, two complementary procedures are employed. Firstly, the community is studied through observation and interviews, which helped creating a SWOT analysis to identify its potential and facilitate an informal discussion with members of the local community on the situation before urbanisation loosened community ties. After this initial stage, a prototype for various areas of community development is discussed in a community workshop to enable participants to offer their opinions on how the community could develop further. The results reveal the aspirations of the local community towards improving social and environmental issues.

Keywords: sustainable community development; design thinking; Bangkok; Thailand; tourism; community well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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