This research aimed to explore the interplay between democracy, power and design, it focused on the design and delivery of a specific type of public service known as Collaborative Local Community Service (CLCS). It is a relational service (Cipolla and Manzini, 2009) designed, developed and delivered by and for people in the community, with or without support from other entities (e.g. the central government and the LAO). The primary objective is to achieve a common goal and enhance collective well-being. Examples of CLCSs include a service for reusing school uniforms, a community garden, and a neighbourhood watch, recognised as community-led social innovations by Thai scholars in the field of social science and political science. For this reason, existing studies often overlook the public administration system, power structure, available mechanisms for public participation, and the roles of the LAO and community leaders in facilitating or hindering such initiatives. This research, therefore, aimed to provide new perspectives by positioning CLCS as a form of public service and a means of public participation in local affairs, and applying design as an approach to knowledge.

Designing and delivering CLCS is situated at the intersection of design for public service, design for social innovation and Participatory Design (PD). The concept of collaborative service is not new. It was proposed and extensively developed by the Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) network as a type of social innovation that would lead to sustainable development (Jégou and Manzini, 2008; Cipolla, Melo and Manzini, 2015; Manzini, 2015). This study sought to contribute further knowledge to this area by examining how local communities and designers/researchers design and deliver CLCS in Thailand and examining various types of power manifest throughout the process.

To conduct the research, I grounded my study in the constructivist research paradigm and first study examined existing CLCSs in the Thai context through case study research, while the second centred on a collaborative design process between a local community and designers/researchers through Participatory Action Research (PAR) informed by Research through Design (RtD).

By applying the concept of care and power as a lens to analyse the data, the findings suggest that CLCS can be recognised as a form of care practice and a means of providing care for specific groups and the entire community. It allows community members to care about certain issues within their community, enables them to care for one another, and engages them in creating alternative possibilities for new ways of communal living. Additionally, I proposed processes for designing and delivering CLCS with care as an alternative approach to design with local communities and outlined the various types of power that manifested throughout the process, especially in relation to designers/researchers and objects of design.