ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an expansive approach to the conceptualisation of boundaries in order to provide a more effective account of these entities than is found within the present literature. The concept of boundaries has received sustained attention within public management and public policy circles. In the broader literature, there are countless accounts of boundaries being ‘blurred,’ whereby they are rendered benign through some sort of process. There is growing consensus within the literature that at least part of the reason for an inability to work effectively across boundaries is an overly simplistic or inadequate understanding of what these entities actually are. Organizational boundaries are often treated as socially and organizationally unproblematic, to be determined by considerations of economic efficiency. Boundaries have emerged as a crucial topic of study within a number of different disciplines including history, political science, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, organisational studies, economics, law, social psychology and even theoretical physics.
