Toward a General Theory of Boundary Work: Insights from the CGIAR's Natural Resource Management Programs

Abstract

Previous research on the determinants of effectiveness in knowledge systems seeking to support sustainable development has highlighted the importance of "boundary work" through which research communities organize their relations with other fields of science, other sources of knowledge, and the worlds of action and policymaking. A growing body of scholarship postulates specific attributes of boundary work that promote used and useful research. These propositions, however, are largely based on the experience of a few industrialized countries. We report here on an effort to evaluate their relevance for efforts to harness science in support of sustainability in the developing world. We carried out a multi-country comparative analysis of natural resource management programs conducted under the auspices of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). We discovered 6 distinctive kinds of boundary work contributing to successes of the CGIAR programs-a greater variety than has been documented in previous studies. We propose that these different kinds of boundary work can be understood as a dual response to the different uses for which the results of specific research programs are intended, and the different sources of knowledge drawn on by those programs. We show that these distinctive kinds of boundary work require distinctive strategies to organize them effectively. Especially important are arrangements regarding participation of stakeholders, governance, and the use of boundary objects. We conclude that improving the ability of research programs to produce useful knowledge for sustainable development will require both greater and differentiated support for multiple forms of boundary work.

Managing urban water crises: adaptive policy responses to drought and flood in Southeast Queensland, Australia

“…Recent policy debates about the significance of climate change, and the policy implications of climate change and variability, have reinforced the need to take knowledge-sharing approaches more seriously in natural resource management. There is increasing value in facilitating the development of forums or intermediary organizations that bring stakeholders together, that provide opportunities for discussion of divergent viewpoints, or that share research findings with policymakers and practitioners (Clark et al 2010). In recent years, the development of the SEQ regional planning framework has provided a space for many issues to be recognized (Queensland Government 2009), but there is no clear responsibility for a coordinated approach.…”

Political Criteria for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Selection and the Role of the Urban Dimension

“…In the use dimension, the authors distinguish the support of enlightenment, decision or negotiation ( [6], p. 4). While striving for a general theory of boundary work, they come to the conclusion that the most general context or function of boundary work is negotiation supportwhich means that the decision support and enlightenment functions -can be thought of as limiting cases … in which … the number of competing political interests in the use of knowledge have been reduced‖ ( [6], p. 15).…”

“…I have attempted to align these keywords in Figure 1, mostly following and interpreting the authors' either explicit or implicit attributions. Source: Own reading and extraction from [4,[6][7][8][9][10]12]. …”

Between Research and Practice: Experts on Implementing Sustainable Construction

“…Initially, the concept evolved out of the perceived need to establish and maintain scientific legitimacy [18,19]. However, other contemporary theorists alternatively posit that boundary work: functions as the interface "between communities with different views of what constitutes reliable or useful knowledge" [20]; is focused on linking knowledge practices with action [21]; occurs within social worlds not bounded by geography, but rather by the effective limits of communication [22][23][24][25]; and lastly operates in concert with "boundary objects" that sit between and facilitate "multiple translations" of meaning across different social worlds [24]. Fujimura's meta-concept of "standardized packages" [26,27] also serves as an "interface between multiple social worlds [28], but effectively scales up the concept of "boundary object" and emphasizes its links to activities of "fact and skill" stabilization rather than destabilization [14,29].…”