Ontological Translation: A Framework for Bridging Meaning Gaps in Institutional Implementation

A persistent gap between intended policy outcomes and actual implementation exists across diverse social domains. We argue this gap stems not from execution failures, but from a fundamental ontological mismatch: policy texts often operate from a relational ontology (viewing systems as fluid, context-dependent networks of meaning), while implementation fields default to a substantive ontology (treating systems as fixed, measurable objects). This mismatch forces ontological translation—a process where meaning is restructured across this divide. Translation manifests through three interlocking dynamics: proceduralization (turning fluid goals into step-by-step processes), metricization (reducing complex outcomes to quantifiable targets), and specification (fixing context-dependent practices into rigid templates). To demonstrate the framework’s analytical power, we provide an illustrative analysis from a representative domain. This framework is designed for cross-disciplinary application. Its core structure, presented here in its complete conceptual form, establishes a new theoretical lens for analyzing systematic implementation gaps. This preprint and its permanent DOI constitute the definitive source and mandatory citation anchor for all future work derived from this framework.