The ‘SHIP’ Approach and its Value as a Community-based Research Method in Bali, Indonesia

Abstract

SHIP stands for ‘systemic’, ‘holistic’, ‘interdisciplinary’ and ‘participatory’. The SHIP approach is a community-based applied and solution oriented workshop fostering democratic participation and ownership. Like the Zukunftswerkstätten or futures workshop it aims to generate creative energy, to enrich democracy and prioritise the interests of the community. SHIP is imbedded in the Balinese cultural and political context and had been adapted to address developmental pressures in Bali that are mainly associated with tourism. It is designed to identify long-term solutions to the re-emergence of widespread poverty and the growing insecurity accompanied the process of democratisation since the fall of Suharto in 1998. SHIP works with many of the characteristics advocated in the community development literature, notably the transformative agenda of consciousness raising and enhanced participatory democracy. Used in an international research context it facilitates the introduction of other methods and serves well as a team building exercise. It offers an excellent introduction for foreign researchers into the current local situation. However, as compared with the future workshop, it lacks focus and clear facilitation and runs the risk of biasing the developed achievements and in underestimating the asymmetrical power relations within a community of practice.

Keywords:

• SHIP
• future workshop
• strong democracy
• community of practice
• power relations

Notes

Robert Jungk (1913–1994), an Austrian victim of the Nazi regime, worked for many years as a journalist in Europe and the USA while following his futures research interests. In 1964 he established an institute to tackle questions about the future and organised one of the first world conferences on futures research in Oslo in 1968. He was an active member in the peace movement and received the alternative Nobel Prize for his pioneering work in Stockholm in 1986.

The method is widely used in Europe and America, and the German speaking countries established a network (http://www.zw2003.de) and an association (http://www.zukunftswerkstaetten-verein.de) to exchange and collect information, as well as to develop the method further. They also offer training for ‘moderators’.

In its original conception the futures workshops worked with larger groups, but was later scaled down to working with groups with a maximum of 30 participants. If more people wanted to attend additional co-facilitators would be added.

The authors have observed and participated in several SHIP and futures workshops in Germany and Indonesia.