ABSTRACT
Unlike other analytical concepts discussed in this book, boundary work is not essentially a concept associated with the analysis of discourse or inter action. Boundaries more generally have been the focus of much investigation. Tilly (2004: 213), for example, notes that:
People everywhere organize a significant part of their social interaction around the formation, transformation, activation, and suppression of social boundaries. It happens at the small scale of interpersonal dialogue, at the medium scale of rivalry within organizations, and at the large scale of genocide. Us–them boundaries matter.
