The PADI Model: Community Service as Peace Infrastructure for Preventing Social Conflict

Indonesian law assigns the prevention of social conflict not only to the state but also to society, yet community engagement programmes run by universities rarely take up this mandate in a sustained way. This article asks how community service (pengabdian kepada masyarakat) can be designed to function as part of the local infrastructure for peace rather than as a one-off awareness activity. Using a narrative review guided by the SANRA quality criteria, the study synthesises 28 sources consisting of Indonesian empirical studies on community early warning institutions, community-based practice, international literature on peace education, early warning, and violence interruption, and national and regional regulations and guidelines. The sources were coded into three pillars, namely peace education, community early warning, and local institutions, and read through two lenses, Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation and the four prevention efforts mandated by Article 6 of Law No. 7 of 2012. The review finds a persistent gap between a participatory legal mandate and a practice that remains largely informative, as community early awareness forums are constrained by the absence of operating procedures, limited budgets, uneven capacity, and fragmented programmes. Drawing on the Philippine experience of institutionalised peace education, community-based CEWERS guidelines, and university-community partnership models, the article proposes the PADI Model, which comprises practice-based peace education, community early warning action, dialogue through local institutions, and institutionalisation. The model positions universities as connectors that move communities up the participation ladder and then hand over the roles to local actors. The model is conceptual and requires field testing through participatory action research.