Ontologies as deep leverage points: Interconnectedness and production
Date
2026
Authors
MacMaster, Grace
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Victoria
Abstract
Although there is widespread awareness of the issue of climate crisis, the broader ecological crisis remains insufficiently confronted. Current responses largely rely on technological advancements and the dissemination of scientific knowledge, reflecting the "information-deficit" assumption that ecological imbalances persist primarily due to a lack of information among the general populace. This thesis investigates the role of ontologies in shaping how humans interpret and engage with the more-than-human world and asks: how might differences between the hegemonic Western capitalist-scientific ontology and ontologies that center fundamental human and other-than-human interconnectedness reveal the importance of ontological change for political-economic transformation in response to the ecological crisis? With a focus on production, understood as the ways in which humans materially reproduce their lives, this thesis looks at how the dominant Western capitalist-scientific ontology is involved in the generation of economic organization that obscures ecological relationality. In contrast, a phenomenologically-informed ontology and a Potawatomi Indigenous ontology are analyzed for how they foreground human and other-than-human interconnectedness, promoting alternative understandings of productive organization. By comparing these ontological frameworks, this thesis argues that ontologies can be understood as deep leverage points for transforming political-economic relations in ways that could be useful for addressing the ecological crisis.
Description
Keywords
ontologies, political theory, political ecology, capitalism, phenomenology, ecological crisis, Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards (JCURA)