Boundary Work

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Abstract
The author posits a model that attempts to explicate in part the relation between the modes of economic and cultural production. The focus in on the linkage between the process of producing and reproducing knowledge units and the structure that is the distribution of power in society. At the center of this model is the process labeled “boundary work.” Boundary work is defined as those acts and structures that create, maintain, and break down the boundaries between knowledge units. The utility of the model is illustrated with references to the development of social anthropology during the interwar years.