Boundary object

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A boundary object is a concept in sociology to describe information used in different ways by different communities. They are plastic, interpreted differently across communities but with enough immutable content to maintain integrity. The ideas was introduced by Susan Leigh Star and James R. Griesemer in a 1989 publication:[1]

“ Boundary objects are both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites. They are weakly structured in common use, and become strongly structured in individual-site use. They may be abstract or concrete. They have different meanings in different social worlds but their structure is common enough to more than one world to make them recognizable means of translation. The creation and management of boundary objects is key in developing and maintaining coherence across intersecting social worlds. ”

This paper has since become a citation classic with the idea also becoming popular in computer science (particularly computer supported cooperative work) and management. Star has developed the idea further (e.g. [2]).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Star SL & Griesemer JR (1989). "Institutional Ecology, 'Translations' and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39". Social Studies of Science 19 (4): 387–420. doi:10.1177/030631289019003001. 
  2. ^ Bowker, G. C.; & Star, S. L. (1999). Sorting things out: classification and its consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press