"hey architect, ko wai hoki koe?" Decolonising mainstream placemaking in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

<p>The colonising of Aotearoa, New Zealand has meant, for the most part, that decisions determining the past and future of our cultural landscapes are made by distant ‘experts’ within mainstream practices. Around the world, many Indigenous peoples remain resilient in defending their centuries-old knowledge and their inherent right to determine their own lives in the places around them. Although Indigenous placemaking is not new, it remains mostly unexplored and commonly misunderstood in Western theory and practice. As discussions of climate change, spatial and social justice intensify and inundate placemaking agendas, Indigenous placemaking emerges as much more than a box-to-tick, providing an entirely different ontological reality of what placemaking is and has the potential to be. This thesis examines the relationship between mainstream placemaking and contemporary Māori placemaking. It assesses decision-making mechanisms and power structures within mainstream practice, questioning how placemaking kaimahi can better recognise the different aspirations of whānau, hapū and iwi. This thesis sought to capture and highlight the essence of contemporary Māori placemaking in te whare tapu ō Ngāpuhi, the far north of Aotearoa, New Zealand. ĀKAU, a design and architecture firm that works with local taitamariki in Kaikohe provided the centre point and case study for the research. In addition to this, several interviews took place with design kaimahi working within Northland. This research found that the many place-keepers and place-makers of contemporary Māori placemaking create much more than built outcomes. It also highlighted significant opportunities for mainstream practice to transform how its practitioners and processes interact with our communities. This thesis demonstrates how mainstream methods of placemaking and professionals who prioritise rules over people and process, fail to be active treaty partners to contemporary Māori placemaking.</p>

"hey architect, ko wai hoki koe?" Decolonising mainstream placemaking in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

<p>The colonising of Aotearoa, New Zealand has meant, for the most part, that decisions determining the past and future of our cultural landscapes are made by distant ‘experts’ within mainstream practices. Around the world, many Indigenous peoples remain resilient in defending their centuries-old knowledge and their inherent right to determine their own lives in the places around them. Although Indigenous placemaking is not new, it remains mostly unexplored and commonly misunderstood in Western theory and practice. As discussions of climate change, spatial and social justice intensify and inundate placemaking agendas, Indigenous placemaking emerges as much more than a box-to-tick, providing an entirely different ontological reality of what placemaking is and has the potential to be. This thesis examines the relationship between mainstream placemaking and contemporary Māori placemaking. It assesses decision-making mechanisms and power structures within mainstream practice, questioning how placemaking kaimahi can better recognise the different aspirations of whānau, hapū and iwi. This thesis sought to capture and highlight the essence of contemporary Māori placemaking in te whare tapu ō Ngāpuhi, the far north of Aotearoa, New Zealand. ĀKAU, a design and architecture firm that works with local taitamariki in Kaikohe provided the centre point and case study for the research. In addition to this, several interviews took place with design kaimahi working within Northland. This research found that the many place-keepers and place-makers of contemporary Māori placemaking create much more than built outcomes. It also highlighted significant opportunities for mainstream practice to transform how its practitioners and processes interact with our communities. This thesis demonstrates how mainstream methods of placemaking and professionals who prioritise rules over people and process, fail to be active treaty partners to contemporary Māori placemaking.</p>

The jurisprudence of universal subjectivity: COVID-19, vulnerability and housing

Drawing upon Martha Fineman’s vulnerability theory, the paper argues that the legal claims of homeless appellants before and during the COVID-19 pandemic illustrate our universal vulnerability which stems from the essential, life-sustaining activities flowing from the ontological status of the human body. By recognizing that housing availability has constitutional significance because it provides for life-sustaining activities such as sleeping, eating and lying down, I argue that the legal rationale reviewed in the paper underscores the empirical, ontological reality of the body as the basis for a jurisprudence of universal vulnerability. By tracing the constitutional basis of this jurisprudence from Right to Travel to Eighth Amendment grounds during COVID-19, the paper outlines a distinct legal paradigm for understanding vulnerability in its universal, constant and essential form – one of the central premises of vulnerability theory.

Logical Mechanisms of Comprehending Culture: An Experience of a Theoretical and Methodological Research

В статье предложена конкретизация методов постижения культуры, отражающая онтологию самой культуры. Несмотря на разнообразие теорий, в культурологии отмечается недостаточная конкретизация принципиальных оснований, необходимых для формирования методов постижения различных аспектов культуры как реальности. Целью явилось определение совокупности парадигм методических представлений, с которыми связано логическое постижение культуры. Источником исследования послужили различные представления культуроцентризма: как социальной стратегии (В. С. Библер, А. Я. Флиер), как научно-исследовательской программы (Г. Риккерт), как мировоззренческой позиции (М. С. Каган, Ю. В. Ларин). Исследование осуществлено в два этапа: через акт сравнения конкретизированы основания для формирования методологий логики, диалектики и антиномии, затем показана сфера применимости каждой области методов в отношении культуры. Полученные результаты важны для разработки общих и специальных методологий постижения культуры. Cultural centrism is a concept that considers culture as an ontological reality. The fundamental foundations necessary for the formation of methods of comprehending various aspects of culture as reality are insufficiently specified. The aim of the study is to determine the set of paradigms of methodological concepts that are associated with the logical comprehension of culture. The sources of the study were various representations of cultural centrism: as a social strategy, as a research program, as a worldview position. The methodological foundations for comprehending culture should reflect its ontology, multidimensionality and metalogical complexity. The study was carried out in two stages: through the act of comparison, the grounds for the formation of methodologies of logic, dialectic and antinomy were specified, then the scope of applicability of each methodology in relation to culture was shown. The methodological basis for comprehending the ontology of culture was developed based on the positions of cultural centrism. The research methods are differentiated analysis and conceptual modeling within the framework of a system-structural approach to the object of research. The objectivity of the methodology requires that the logic of cognition be consistent with the nature of the perceived reality. The main methodological element of the cognizing act is the implementation of a logical comparison operation, which can be resolved in three ways, forming the methods of logic, dialectic and antinomy of culture. The logic of culture coincides with its morphology, it reflects the existence and development of objective forms of culture (symbolic, normative, axiological and objective representations, enshrined in the corresponding theories of cultural genesis, are fundamental ones). The dialectic of culture repeats personal inculturation and cultural creation. The antinomy of culture reflects the inconsistency of the ontological reality of culture, which unambiguously and inseparably connects the subject and the object of culture. This allows us to consider in unity all the particular concepts of describing culture’s specific reality (nature-centric, sociocentric, anthropocentric and theocentric) and all the types of culture’s actualization (objective, normative, axiological and symbolic). As a result, the concretization of methods of comprehending culture is proposed. The concretization reflects the ontology of culture itself. The results obtained are promising for the development of general and specific methodologies for comprehending culture.

Which meaning is instilled in the idea of the ultimate ontology and existence of the world

This paper discusses the concept of ultimate ontology and the mechanism of its projection upon reality. The article consists of two thematic parts: the first analyzes the general cultural processes of the establishment of ultimate ontology and worldview, while the second traces the evolution of representations of the reality and ultimate ontology in the Moscow Methodological Circle. The article discusses the example of representation of nature, which fulfills the functions of ultimate ontology and worldview of the European Art Nouveau. Leaning on the personal research, the author outlines the following stages of the establishment of ultimate ontology: construction of narratives (i.e., initially these were schemes only, and thus, virtual semantic reality); perception and proliferation of these narratives (acquisition in the course of communication); practicing the acquired narratives (schemes) with behavioral transformations of the individuals; functioning of the new social reality, including its examination, and in some instances, attempts to make changes therein, Not every ultimate ontology is recognized in culture as the worldview, it pertains only to such that allows explicating the practices (including epistemic), which determine the core processes of functionality and development of the culture. The article also offers a reconstruction of the history of the Moscow Methodological Circle, which with time has replaced the three ultimate ontologies &ndash; attitude, activity, and mental activity. In the first two cases, these ontologies were suggested for the role of the worldviews (namely the category of activity); in the third case, G. P. Shchedrovitsky, who created the scheme of mental activity, for the most part considered it as a method of configuration of other methodological schemes, rather than a unified ontological reality. The article explores the reasons that impeded Shchedrovitsky and the members of the Moscow Methodological Circle to comprehend the essence of thinking, forgo the interpretation of the worldview as an activity, and shift towards the development of the theory of mental activity.

“Save as…”. The role of a computer interface in digital ontology

The article provides the analysis of the computer interface as a digital world phenomenon in correlation with its constitutive and representative function for image production. Several concepts of media theorists and researchers of visual culture of new (i. e. digital) media (M. Hansen, D. Bruno, D. Drucker) are examined in the context of considering intermediary functions of interface between the computer code message and the user. The analysis of the project of art group Share Lab about the interface and algorithms of Facebook for user behavior is being carried out. The representative role of interface in production of the ontological reality of media is considered, which is correlated both with the production of a media event and with such concept of a contemporary world as “post-truth”. The conclusion is offered that the constitutive role of computer interface is manifested both in social practices of digital media users and production of media events with attention to its representative function.

The Sacramental Ontology of the Church

This article seeks to construct a renewalist ecclesiology foundations on the idea that the church is an ontological reality with the epistemological purpose of traditioning its members. To accomplish this, I construct, in conversation with Simon Chan and Simon Oliver, a sacramental ontology of the invisible church from the Garden of Eden via the incarnation. Then, interacting with the work of Chan and James K.A. Smith, I explore the role of the visible church to tradition its members. Finally, I offer a framework for an ecclesial traditioning praxis. This praxis is founded in prayer, shaped by the narrative of Scripture, and utilizes both the weekly service and ongoing discipleship training.

postmodern Post-feminism without Women

This article aims at showing the way in which the discursive constructivism and ethical relativism characteristic of postmodern feminism and post-feminism leads to a neo-liberal and conservative political agenda that threatens women’s sex-based rights. The article will especially focus on the thought of Paul-B Preciado as a post-feminist activist. It draws a comparison also with the work of Saba Mahmood. In such a context, we will point out the necessity of a neo-material and realist framework able to account for the ontological reality of women, and their irreducibility to social hetero-norms. Keywords: Constructivism, nominalism, embodiment, sexual difference, human rights, materialism.

Ontological Analysis of the Research by the Lancaster Branch of Actor-Network Theory: From Perception to Object

In this article, the author attempts to consider the lacuna of “applied” ontology as proposed by the Lancaster version of the actor-network theory within the framework of a broader philosophically funded approach of Graham Harman (complemented by Levi Bryant’s ideas). This is done in order to clarify the position of the Lancaster version of ANT, according to which the same object may have several ontological modes, being, nevertheless, the same “real” object. For the purposes of analysis, the classical works of A. Mol and J. Law in addition to the works of L. Wittgenstein, L. Bryant, and H. Harman are used. The author of the article concludes that the ontological reality of objects and the perception of single objects as discrete ones within the framework of the ANT Lancaster branch results from the fact that Mol and Law do not fit their research into the framework of broader ontologies. They create their own local ontologies instead. Nevertheless, this “ontological lack” can and should be improved to increase research fruitfulness and complexity.

Component Elements of a Crime as an Ontological Reality of Unknown Existence

The paper deals with methodological problems of understanding the component elements of a crime in the doctrine and modern science of criminal law. The author analyzes the philosophical approaches to determining the essence of this phenomenon, the influence of the classical school of criminal law on the formation of such concepts as "crime" and "component elements of a crime", reveals the prerequisites and reasons for the multilevel understanding of the component elements of a crime in pre-revolutionary and Soviet criminal law. The ratio between the crime and the component elements of a crime is revealed (based on the features of these legal concepts) and questions are raised about the non-identical understanding of the same phenomena in criminal law. The author states that the component elements of a crime cannot be identified with the concept of "crime" and is the basis for criminal liability. The component elements are always a legislative (regulatory) model, not a reality. The reality is only a committed crime, which entails the emergence of the relevant legal relations. In conflict social relations characterized by the commission of an illegal criminal act, the crime itself exists, but not the component elements of this crime. The author suggests that the component elements should be distinguished within the scope of the crime’s illegality, rather than the crime as a whole. From this point of view, it is proved that the disposition of the criminal law norm determines the model of a specific illegal act and its features (objective and subjective), since in real life the composition is associated with those features that are described in the disposition of the legal norm. The disposition does not replace the component elements, on the contrary, the component elements of illegality are revealed in the disposition of the criminal law norm. Research methods used in the course of the study are as follows: formal dogmatic, historical legal, comparative legal.