Boundary
These notes are part of a series for the book.
Outline
- The duality of boundary relations
- Boundary objects
- Brokering
- Complementary connections
- Boundary encounters and the negotiation of meaning
- Practice as connection
- Boundary practices
- Overlaps
- Peripheries
- The landscape of practice
- Practice as boundary
- Boundaries and peripheries
Notes
‘Learning means dealing with boundaries’ (from the 13 principles defining learning, Wenger, 1998, p. 227).
Communities of practice (COPs) create boundaries and also create ways to be connected with those outside the boundaries. (Note: The boundaries of an institutional COP are not necessarily the same as the institution’s boundaries.)
There are related COPs, and a COP may also interact with people who do not share a COP. When you become a member of a COP, you also enter into its relationships with these other people and groups.
- Explicit boundary markers: Depending on their effects on participation, examples are titles, uniforms, and degrees.
- Non-obvious boundaries also can exist and affect participation, such as the “glass ceiling”.
- See also:
- Issues of non-obvious boundaries and maintenance of them to prevent access in Hall, K. (2008) ‘Leaving Middle Childhood and Moving into Teenhood: Small Stories Revealing Identity and Agency’.
- Hicks, D. (2012) ‘Literacies and Masculinities in the Life of a Young Working-Class Boy’.
- Gonzalez, N., Moll, L., Tenery, M., Rivera, A., Rendon, P., Gonzales, R., and Amanti, C. (2005) ‘Funds of Knowledge for Teaching in Latino Households’
Participation and reification also can create connections:
| Characteristic | Participation | Reification |
|---|---|---|
| They can create connections across boundaries | Brokering is a connection made by people who can bring parts of a practice from one COP to another. Being a bridge between two COPs may even be a primary activity (for example, of a manager) Complementary connections is different than brokering. It is crossing boundaries through acquaintances with people in other COPs, like neighbors, spouses, and friends. | Boundary objects are a type of connection in which a reification is used by multiple COPs to organize their interconnections. |
Boundary objects
Standardization of information helps artifacts connect COPs across boundaries. Wenger uses the claim forms as an example — they have standards which allow a claims person to interact with the medical professions and the patient.
- When boundary objects are used by more than one COP, neither has complete control over it. One COP may create the object, but another interprets its meaning in their own way.
- When you create documents, tools, and systems, you are often creating a boundary object. They are designed for participation, and understanding the COPs who will use it becomes critical to good design.
Brokering and complementary connections
Brokering is when ideas, meanings, etc., are brought over. Not all multi-membership is brokering. A broker has to have legitimacy within the COP, and must be able to get attention, translate, influence, and mobilize — it is very participatory.
In the workplace, brokers might be line managers who sit uncomfortably with one foot in two different COPs (management and worker) without fully being recognized by either as a broker (not a full member, but also not an outsider). ‘Uprootedness is an occupational hazard of brokering…. Reinterpreting their experience in terms of the occupational hazards of brokering is useful both for them and for the communities involved. It can also allow brokers to recognize one another, seek companionship, and perhaps develop shared practices around the enterprise of brokering. That is one way people can deal with uprootedness’ (Wenger, 1998, p. 110). Brokers ‘contributions lie precisely lie in being neither in nor out. Brokering therefore requires an ability to manage carefully the coexistence of membership and nonmembership, yielding enough distance to bring a different perspective, but also enough legitimacy to be listened to’ (Wenger, 1998, p. 110).
With complementary connections, the individual people you connect with cannot be fully representative of their entire COP. Thus, if we use this for making connections across boundaries, we should also pair it with reifications from the COP so that we have a better chance of being able to learn across the boundary.
Boundary encounters
Wenger lists three types of boundary encounters and their shortcomings:
- One-on-one: The problem is that you only get to know one person, so it is not an impartial or complete picture of the COP.
- Immersion: In which you wholly visit a COP; the problem is that it is mostly a one-way connection
- Delegation: The problem is that visitors may cling to their own perspectives
Practice as connection
Connections also can become part of a practice. Are these connections part of the instructional designer’s practice? Which, and is it the right type of connection?
- Boundary practices: For example, task forces and cross-functional teams
- For this to be effective, the people cannot insulate themselves from the practices they want to connect to. ‘[I]f their practices cease to be boundary practices then they fail to create connections to anything beyond themselves. One teacher, isolated from other practitioners and immersed in classroom issues, ceases to be representative of anything else; and artifacts gain local meanings that do not point anywhere’ (Wenger, 1998, p. 115).
- Overlaps: COPs that share a common activity (Wenger gives the example of in-house, embedded experts)
- Peripheries: When a COP offers peripheral activities (legitimate peripheral participation) to people who are not members, for example an architect discussing design decisions with a customer.
- Note: Boundaries define membership and non-membership (outside versus inside). Periphery may be on the edge, but it is on the inside of the COP’s boundary. However, people can be on the periphery and never allowed to go further in.
A landscape of practice is interlocking COPs with boundaries, shared practices, connections, overlaps, and peripheries.