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. 2019 Jun;49(3):281-309.
doi: 10.1177/0306312719849709. Epub 2019 May 23.

The logic of domains

David Ribes  1 , Andrew S Hoffman  1 , Steven C Slota  2 , Geoffrey C Bowker  2
Affiliations

The logic of domains

David Ribes et al. Soc Stud Sci. 2019 Jun.

Abstract

The logic of domains has become a key organizing principle for contemporary computing projects and in broader science policy. The logic parses collectives of expertise into 'domains' that are to be studied or engaged in order to inform computational advancements and/or interventions on the domains themselves. The concept of a domain is set against a proposition that there is a more general, domain independent or agnostic technique that can serve to intermediate the domains. This article contrasts instances of this discourse, organizing and techne, drawing from cases in artificial intelligence, software engineering, and science policy to illustrate three ongoing figurations of the logic as i) experimental research, ii) formalization in method and software tools, and iii) a de facto organizing principle for science policy and technology development.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; computer science; data science; domains; knowledge representation; science policy.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The process of analyzing domains (Neighbors, 1989), moving from specific (left), to domain modeling (middle), the general Draco repository (right), and specific reuse (bottom). Domain analysis is hard (thus the frowny faces for analysts) but facilitates reuse (thus smiling faces below).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Drawn from the Computing the Future report, caption in original (NRC, 1992).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Cyberinfrastructure architecture diagram (Atkins et al., 2003). Specific disciplinary applications are undergirded by generic infrastructure: ‘[generic] applications are a hybrid case with shared responsibility between technological and disciplinary programs.’
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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