Ontologising as a Political Attitude
Designers engage in collective design work in order to address the complex societal challenges that they care about. This chapter explores the political role of design in uncovering, working with and shaping the highly diverse collectives that designers encounter, form and alter as they contribute to these societal challenges. This role is explored by looking at concrete case examples taken from the realm of spatial design. The chapter articulates a double call towards participatory designers: one the one hand, to design for and be aware of both silent and silenced human actors and, on the other hand, of non-human actors. In order to stress the active attitude that is implied by this call, designing with this double awareness is coined as “ontologising”, a political and careful design practice that maps and possibly redesigns in a more life-sustaining way the relationships of radical interdependence between all possible human and non-human actors involved with certain matters of care.
Sub-initiatives
KOOLMIJNLAAN - MAPPING RADICAL INTERDEPENDENCIES
In this case study we look back at our involvement in the redesign of Koolmijnlaan road in the Limbu...
CIRCULAR CENTRUM-ZUID - URBAN DESIGN EXPLORING ‘COLLECTIVES’ IN CIRCULAR ECONOMY TRANSITION
This case study revisits five imaginaries for Centrum-Zuid, an industry park in the municipality of ...
CIRCLE SECTOR
Circle Sector supports industries, scientists, policy makers and citizens to facilitate the transiti...
PAZUGOO AND NUCLEAR WASTE AS ALIENATING FUTURE RELIC
Within the complex materials of radioactive waste, where toxic half-lives can extend for millions or...
NEW COLLECTIVES IN THE STIEMER VALLEY - THE MASTERPLAN OF THE STIEMER VALLEY
In the light of the New Climatic Regime the Masterplan of the Stiemer Valley tries to define and cla...
Waar een wil is, kan een weg weg
Ruimtelijke ordening en mobiliteit zijn een Siamese tweeling : het lot van de ene is verbonden met d...