From Conflict to Care: A design learning experiment on food justice in Rio de Janeiro

This paper discusses the Design for Peace Ecosystem: Urban Conflict and Food Justice course as a situated experiment in transformative design education. Conducted in Rio de Janeiro, the course combined participatory mapping, desk research, and fieldwork to explore how design can reveal and reframe tensions and hidden structural injustices within urban Food Systems. Students first developed urban food conflict maps to visualise inequalities in access, labour, and cultural recognition. Through desk research, they identified local “food care” initiatives that address food conflicts and promote the right to an adequate food culture. Using ethnographic diaries and ethnography techniques, they engaged with community projects to observe everyday practices of resistance, ecology, and cooperation. The final design projects reinterpreted these insights into relational design interventions that promote food justice. The paper reflects on how conflict mapping and field research can serve as design-led inquiry, fostering critical awareness and transformative engagement within urban foodscapes.