Boundary Objects: How Can People Cooperate Without Complete Agreement?

A boundary object is something that retains a shared identity across different groups while allowing each group to interpret and use it for its own purposes. It does not require everyone to begin with the same body of knowledge; they need only recognise that they are working on the same object.

An architectural floor plan can belong at once to a homeowner, an architect and a builder. The homeowner asks whether the rooms will work, the architect reads spatial relationships, and the builder looks for dimensions and construction details. Their concerns differ, yet the plan lets their judgements correspond, exposes conflicts and gives revisions a common version.

This differs from representation in general: an accurate image need not connect several communities of practice. Nor is it simply an interface, which places more emphasis on rules of exchange. A boundary object concerns how one object accommodates different uses. My view is that cooperation need not begin by eliminating interpretive differences. What matters is whether the shared object is stable enough to be jointly recognised, yet flexible enough to be revised when problems emerge.

https://doi.org/10.1177/030631289019003001