ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 represents the main conceptual contributions of the book. It proposes a novel analytical lens rooted in Bernsteinian sociology, specifically, his grounding of social boundaries in interplays of power and control. I review broader theoretical and empirical literature in the fields of organisational and institutional sociology, science and technology studies and the sociologies of knowledge and education, much of which itself has employed the boundary metaphor. In a novel synthesis of this literature I develop a research agenda centred on what I refer to as ‘boundary transactions’, of which I highlight five main forms related to academia’s research-related interactions with non-academic society: ‘outreach’, ‘collaborative research’, ‘user-oriented outputs’, ‘boundary structures’ and ‘boundary-spanners’. I then describe how I conducted my own empirical study designed to implement and answer questions grounded in the boundary lens developed in the earlier parts of the chapter. Although I see the main contributions of this book as being conceptual, this chapter also sets up Chapters 3 and 4 which draw on findings from my empirical research, which was a mixed-methods study of academic science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) departments in the context of the United Kingdom and its national research assessment, the Research Excellence Framework.
