ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a range of methods and methodologies that have been used to understand different forms of collaborative practice. It focuses on a systematic review of the boundary-spanning literature, which identified a number of common approaches to understanding boundary crossing. The chapter explores three common approaches: practice-based methods, single case studies, and socio-metric analyses. It assesses how these different methods are applied, as well as discussing their benefits and drawbacks. The chapter suggests that a range of methodological approaches that could be more widely used in boundary-spanning research, which address many of the limitations of the individual methods. Z. C. S. Leung was centrally concerned with individual-level factors, recording interactions among the members, such as their communications and processes of problem-solving and conflict resolution. Individual cases can generate testable hypotheses and elicit some causal claims.
