Boundary Objects

"... are those objects that both inhabit several communities of practice and satisfy the informational requirements of each of them. Boundary objects are thus 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. These objects may be abstract or concrete... Such objects have different meanings in different social worlds but their structure is common enough to more than one world to make them recognizable, a means of translation. The creation and management of boundary objects is a key process in developing and maintaining coherence across intersecting communities." (Bowker & Star, 1999 pg. 297)

Bowker, G. C., & Star, S. L. (1999). Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

  • Bowker and Star profiles (Santa Clara University) (UC Irvine, ISR)

    See also ..

  • Nishiyama Boundary objects.
  • John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid (1996) Documents as Boundary Objects: Patrolling and Controlling
  • Brian Marick: Boundary Objects (pdf)
  • Elisabeth Davies and Pamela McKenzie (2004) Preparing for opening night: temporal boundary objects in textually-mediated professional practice
  • Nancy Van House Digital Libraries and Collaborative Knowledge Construction

    All links verified July 03, 2009.

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    July 03, 2009