Taking Stock of Boundary Work for a New Century
Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity are increasingly part of the way we think about knowledge, research, and education. They are not isolated initiatives. They are linked with a larger family of boundary-crossing approaches. The cumulative force of these approaches has fostered new metaphors and practices that make “boundary work” a more appropriate concept for the plurality of boundary crossing today than the specificities of “interdisciplinarity” and “transdisciplinarity.” Boundary work is a composite label for the claims, activities, and structures by which individuals and groups create, maintain, break down, cross, reformulate, and legitimate boundaries between units of knowledge.
In taking stock of the family of boundary crossing approaches, I will define and weigh the boundary work of major initiatives, including:
• types of interdisciplinary research and education
• types of transdisciplinary research and education
• integrative learning, skills, and pedagogy
• collaborative and participatory research and learning
• meta- and post-disciplinary frameworks and principles
In making this assessment, I shall also address the affordances of new digital technologies and social networking in boundary crossing.
Keywords: interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, boundary crossing, boundary work, integration, collaboration
