Shifting: Ontological Orientations and Wrestling with Dominant Positionalities and Worldviews in Social Design Practices

This research argues in order to challenge dominant paradigms of coloniality and whiteness in social design practice, there is a need to address the politics inherent in the people doing the practice. The research sets ontological orientations through the politicised self and diverse worldviews. It seeks to address the politics of practices from different entry points: ways of knowing and ignorances; ways of doing and critical-dialogical approaches to practice; and practitioners’ ways of being that address the complexity of their own dominating paradigms. The contribution of this research is “shifting”, as a concept and practice to account for ontological orientations.