ABSTRACT
The concept of ‘boundaries’ appears regularly in a wide range of literature concerning public management, administration, geopolitics, regeneration and organizational development. Discussions of boundaries focus on many things, from concrete physical manifestations and barriers, to virtual interfaces between one organizational unit and another, or even entirely theoretical demarcations between different schools of thought (Kaboolian 1998, Levi-Faur 2004, Agranoff 2004). However, managing ‘beyond’ such boundaries is a routinely recurring aspiration that transcends sectors and local concerns. Not surprisingly, there is an increasing understanding of the need to acknowledge and manage such boundaries (whether physical, social or organizational) within public management as a discipline (Currie et al. 2007, Fitzsimmons and White 1997, Boal 1992, Murtagh 1999). This chapter uses two of the unique attributes of a complex adaptive system (CAS)—path-dependency and bifurcation-to explore the impact of boundaries on public management strategic decision-making in the sectors of urban regeneration and healthcare. In particular, it focuses on demarcations to physical space, communal identity and within professional relationships in these sectors.
