Weaving Together a Decolonial Imaginary Through Design for Effective River Management: Pluriversal Ontological Design in Practice

Looking at how we, as designers, can move beyond charges of neo-colonialism in social design, this article uses the empirical example of a design project focused on the restoration of a riverine system in New Zealand to provide an outline of ways that pluriversal ontological design can occur in practice. Exploring how the use of design tools and frameworks (e.g., boundary objects and infrastructuring) can help build out a decolonial imaginary, the article demonstrates how— through our design practice— we are able to successfully acknowledge, and work with, different “ways of being” in the world.

Automation of the development of ontologies of scientific subject domains based on ontology design patterns

At present, ontologies are recognized as the most effective means of formalizing and systematizing knowledge and data in scientific subject domains (SSDs). However, the development of an ontology is a rather complicated and time-consuming process. All indications are that when developing SSDs ontologies, it is especially effective to use ontology design patterns (ODPs). This is due to the fact that the SSD ontology, as a rule, contains a large number of typical frag-ments, which are well described by the ODPs. In addition, due to the fact that the use of ODPs greatly facilitates the development of an SSD ontology, it is possible to involve experts in a modeled SSD not possessing the skills of onto-logical modeling. To obtain an ontology that adequately describes the SSD, it is necessary to process a huge number of publications relevant to the modeled SSD. It is possible to facilitate and accelerate the process of populating the ontolo-gy with information from such sources by using the lexical and syntactic patterns of ontological design. The paper pre-sents an approach to the automated development of SSDs ontologies based on a system of heterogeneous ODPs. This system includes both ODPs intended for ontology developers and lexical and syntactic patterns built on the basis of the above-mentioned types of the ODPs and the current version of the SSD ontology.

Understanding Development Discourse through Ontological Design

Discourse is a powerful way of understanding/forming the world. It consolidates/disassembles society by conforming/disarticulating. However, the work of discourses has not been explained sufficiently in terms of design theory. In this respect, this paper aims to explore how the work of discourses can be understood in relation to the concept of ontological design, especially from the perspective of coloniality. The case of South Korea’s development experience around different types of development assistance strategies was used to interrogate this question. A hermeneutic approach and discourse analysis were adopted for the empirical analysis. The research found the designed development assistance strategies of the “West” design back the development thinking and new development assistance strategies in South Korea. In doing so, the country replicates the “West-centred” discourse of developmentalism. From this, we conclude that discourses are shared through the ontological practices of designing. This informs design studies of how discourse relates to design.

Ontological Design for Cognitive Cities

Based on the advancements of a smart city, the cognitive city focuses on the communication between the city's stakeholders and cognitive systems to create a human-machine symbiosis in which human and machine can interact directly with each other. To develop the cognitive city means to design this sociotechnical relationship. This requires a variety of approaches, methods, and tools. To this purpose, the authors of this chapter suggest the concept of ontological design. This principle helps to develop a research methodology toolbox that can be applied to create research and development strategies suitable for shaping the relationship between human and environment. This chapter is an essay with the aim to encourage the reader to reflect. Ontological design means that it is necessary to become aware of the influences of today's actions on the future. With the help of an illustrative use case, this chapter wants to demonstrate why and to what extent the concept of ontological design can support urban development.