ABSTRACT
The term ‘frontier’ has become commonplace in Western literature, applied metaphorically, to such diverse subjects as ‘the frontiers of science’, ‘frontiers of the mind’ ‘frontiersman’, ‘research frontiers’ and ‘political frontiers’. And yet, despite its widespread currency, it is a word which is curiously ambivalent, vague and lacking distinctive definition. It is difficult to decide whether it suggests integration or division, an area of new opportunity or imminent danger, a forward orientation towards the unknown or a backward inclination towards security. Perhaps it is this very openendedness that makes is such a potent image.
