Papers by PIETER de VRIES
Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research, 2014
We report on the results of the application of a method and tool for ontology construction in the... more We report on the results of the application of a method and tool for ontology construction in the research information domain, held in the context of an open data initiative of Flanders. The method emphasizes the use of natural language descriptions of concepts next to formal descriptions, and usesfor the formal definitionsa fact-oriented formalism grounded in natural language. In this experiment, a group of 36 participants were divided into different groups to build ontologies to establish semantic interoperability between autonomously developed research information systems and to annotate the data of an existing system provided by a public administration. User satisfaction of the tool was measured with the Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire. The result of that survey was that the participants were generally pleased with the platform, with its usefulness scoring best. As for the developed ontologies, their use was demonstrated by the applications developed by the participants. The experiment showed that having a formalism grounded in natural language leverages the ontology construction process for the stakeholders. The experiment also shows that a method needs to take into account the collaborative building of workflows within ontology projects, as not all ontology-engineering projects are alike.
Sociologias, 2013
En las últimas décadas la desconstrucción del desarrollo, conocida como el 'postdesarrollismo... more En las últimas décadas la desconstrucción del desarrollo, conocida como el 'postdesarrollismo', ha cobrado gran auge en las ciencias sociales. En Latino-américa el programa teórico denominado modernidad/colonialidad/descolonialidad (MCD) se propone descolonizar el pensamiento moderno re-escribiendo la historia global a partir de la experiencia colonial. Arturo Escobar, uno de los mayores teóricos del paradigma postdevelopmentalista se apoya en el proyecto MCD para pensar 'alternativas a la modernidad'(o transmodernidad). En este artículo propongo someter la perspectiva postdesarrollista y el proyecto MCD a un test etnográfico. Para eso me centro en las visiones y experiencias de Usibamba, una comunidad en los Andes Centrales Peruanos. La etnografía gira alrededor de la siguiente pregunta: ¿porqué los usibambinos, a pesar de todas sus experiencias negativas con el aparato del desarrollo, insisten en reivindicar la promesa del desarrollo? El programa de MCD nos permite...
Focaal, 2012
This article envisages slum dwellers' politics in Recife, Brazil as a realm of possibility in... more This article envisages slum dwellers' politics in Recife, Brazil as a realm of possibility in which care and recognition are central. Community leaders are its main facilitators as articulators of slum dwellers' needs and aspirations. The article's notion of slum politics is an elaboration of Chatterjee's (2004) ideas on popular politics as a “politics of the governed.“ Yet the article critiques the governmentality perspective for its inability to envisage a politics of hope and possibility. It distinguishes among slum politics, governmental politics (projects and programs), and electoral politics (voting), which are entwined and interdependent, but different. Zooming in on a community leader's urban agriculture project, the article argues that this project, which from an outsiders' perspective may be considered non-viable, provided slum dwellers with possibilities to strive for community solidarity and personal recognition. Slum politics, the article conclud...
Recent Work by PIETER de VRIES
Emotion, Space and Society, 2024
Drawing on the burgeoning field of Global Libidinal Economy, this article argues that informality... more Drawing on the burgeoning field of Global Libidinal Economy, this article argues that informality (i.e., the informal economy) is global capitalism's unconscious, both hiding and revealing the latter's instability and shadowy, indeed "dirty" if not "dangerous," underside. On the basis of a fieldwork-based case study in Recife, Brazil, we bring out informality's exploitative dimensions-unspoken yet crucial to the functioning of capitalist markets; as well as its spontaneous and creative sides, which like the "return of the repressed," act as disturbance and potential threat to these markets. Conceptualizing informality in this (psychoanalytic) way helps foreground the antagonisms upon which capitalism is founded, forebodingly betraying themselves despite attempts to suppress and gentrify them.
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Papers by PIETER de VRIES
Recent Work by PIETER de VRIES