Sometimes Less is More

2013 ◽  
pp. 12-36
Author(s):  
Karen Keene ◽  
Chris Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
Differential Equations ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Mathematics Classroom ◽  
Tangent Vector ◽  
Classroom Community ◽  
Mathematical Community ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Mathematical Activity ◽  
First Semester

As described in the communities of practice literature (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998), boundary objects are material things that interface two or more communities of practice. Extending this, Hoyles, Noss, Kent, and Bakker (2010) defined technology-enhanced boundary objects as, “software tools that adapt or extend symbolic artefacts identified from existing work practice, that are intended to act as boundary objects, for the purposes of employees’ learning and enhancing workplace communication” (p. 17). The authors adapt this idea to the undergraduate mathematics classroom and use the phrase “classroom technology-enhanced boundary object” to refer to a piece of software that acts as a boundary object between the classroom community and the mathematical community. They provide three extended examples of these objects as used in a first semester differential equations classroom to illustrate how students’ mathematical activity may advance as they interact with the software. These examples show how the applets operate to provide a way for the classroom community to implicitly encounter the mathematical community through the authentic practices of mathematics (Rasmussen, Zandieh, King, & Teppo, 2005). The first example centers on students beginning experience with a tangent vector field applet. The second example develops as the students learn more about solutions to differential equations and leads to a statement of the uniqueness theorem. In the third example, students use a specially designed applet that creates a numerical approximation and its associated image in 3-space relating to a non-technological visualization task that introduces solutions to systems of differential equations.

scholarly journals IP Things as Boundary Objects: The Case of the Copyright Work

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J Madison
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Overlapping Communities

The goal of this article is to initiate the exploration of the meanings and functions of the things of intellectual property: the work of authorship (or copyright work) in copyright, the invention in patent, and the mark and the sign in trademark. The article focuses firstly on the example of copyright work. Relevant challenges are both technological and conceptual, because these things blend the material and the immaterial. Works are neither as clearly defined nor as clearly limited as copyright law often suggests they are. To explain and justify that proposition, the article borrows from information science literature exploring boundary objects, which are stable physical and intangible things that align distinct but overlapping communities of practice in flexible ways, via interpretive openness. The article shows that the meanings of the work in copyright law can be unified conceptually in the sense that the work operates as a boundary object across a number of different legal and cultural divides. This view of the work clarifies the distinct status of relevant communities and practices in copyright but also bridges them in copyright’s construction and governance of culture. None of the boundaries represented in these boundary objects is fixed or impermeable. Their very dynamic and sometimes porous character is precisely the governance role illuminated here.

scholarly journals Geometrical Formulation for Adjoint-Symmetries of Partial Differential Equations

Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1547
Author(s):  
Stephen C. Anco ◽  
Bao Wang
Keyword(s):  
Partial Differential Equations ◽  
Differential Equations ◽  
Vector Fields ◽  
Evolution Equations ◽  
Applied Mathematics ◽  
Tangent Vector ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Partial Differential ◽  
Geometrical Meaning ◽  
Geometrical Formulation

A geometrical formulation for adjoint-symmetries as one-forms is studied for general partial differential equations (PDEs), which provides a dual counterpart of the geometrical meaning of symmetries as tangent vector fields on the solution space of a PDE. Two applications of this formulation are presented. Additionally, for systems of evolution equations, adjoint-symmetries are shown to have another geometrical formulation given by one-forms that are invariant under the flow generated by the system on the solution space. This result is generalized to systems of evolution equations with spatial constraints, where adjoint-symmetry one-forms are shown to be invariant up to a functional multiplier of a normal one-form associated with the constraint equations. All of the results are applicable to the PDE systems of interest in applied mathematics and mathematical physics.

scholarly journals Boundary Objects: Engaging and Bridging Needs of People in Participatory Research by Arts-Based Methods

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (15) ◽  
pp. 7903
Author(s):  
Barbara Groot ◽  
Tineke Abma
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Qualitative Evaluation ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Hidden Populations ◽  
Personal Boundaries ◽  
Participatory Health Research

Background: Participatory health research (PHR) is a research approach in which people, including hidden populations, share lived experiences about health inequities to improve their situation through collective action. Boundary objects are produced, using arts-based methods, to be heard by stakeholders. These can bring about dialogue, connection, and involvement in a mission for social justice. This study aims to gain insight into the value and ethical issues of boundary objects that address health inequalities. A qualitative evaluation is conducted on three different boundary objects, created in different participatory studies with marginalized populations (mothers in poverty, psychiatric patients, and unemployed people). A successful boundary object evokes emotions among those who created the objects and those encountering these objects. Such objects move people and create an impulse for change. The more provocative the object, the more people feel triggered to foster change. Boundary objects may cross personal boundaries and could provoke feelings of discomfort and ignorance. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to ethics work. Boundary objects that are made by people from hidden populations may spur actions and create influence by improving the understanding of the needs of hidden populations. A dialogue about these needs is an essential step towards social justice.

scholarly journals VPNs AND ENCRYPTION AS BOUNDARY OBJECTS OF THE INTERNET: (MIS)TRUST IN THE TRANSLATION(S)

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Heemsbergen ◽  
Adam Molnar
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
The Other ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Multiple Use ◽  
Digital Objects ◽  
Vantage Points

How do users come to trust VPNs? How do they understand end-to-end encrypted messaging technologies? This paper aims to answer these questions by considering VPNs and e2e encryption as boundary objects of the internet pertinent to study (dis)trust in the system. Our aim is to follow Star’s clarification of boundary objects as entities that people act towards (or with) in relation to their own communities of practice via a feminist approach to technology studies, which for Star, linked lived experience, technologies, and silences in ways that proved political. We add to the literature in three ways: empirically unpacking VPNs and e2e encryption as boundary objects that tack back and forth between the technical and abstract, which is novel for the literature; an exegesis of boundary objects ‘on’ the internet to consider conceptualizing objects ‘of’ the internet, which opens a fruitful reconfiguration for internet research; and shedding light on the ways that symbolic registers of technology have profound implications for socio-material practices. Our work suggests the back-and-forth ‘tacking’ of abstract to concrete does not manifest as universal and singular, but is made manifest from multiple community vantage points. This complexification shows how digital objects of the internet feed and are fed by multiple use cases and relational practices across commercial, security, rights based, and identity practices that they underpin, undercut or act upon. Users trusting the politics of one case may miss a need to police the other; we conclude by contextualizing these concerns for future research ‘of’ the internet.

scholarly journals Using Boundary Objects to Co-Create Community Health and Water Knowledge with Community-Based Medical Anthropology and Indigenous Knowledge

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-76
Author(s):  
Sarah Duignan ◽  
Tina Moffat ◽  
Dawn Martin-Hill
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Medical Anthropology ◽  
Health Survey ◽  
Water Contamination ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Health Priorities ◽  
Community Based

This article explores how Indigenous Knowledge and medical anthropology can co-construct community health knowledge through boundary work and the use of boundary objects. It will highlight how community-based participatory research (CBPR) in medical anthropology can help co-develop methods and strategies with Indigenous research partners to assess the human health impact of the First Nations water crisis. We draw on a case study of our community-based approach to health research with Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation community stakeholders and McMaster University researchers. We highlight how framing a co-constructed health survey as a boundary object can create dialogical space for Indigenous and western academic pedagogies and priorities. We also explore how this CBPR anthropology approach, informed by Indigenous Knowledge, allows for deeper foundations of culturally centered health to guide our work in identifying current and future community health needs concerning these ongoing water contamination and access issues. Through three health survey versions, priorities and research questions shifted and expanded to suit growing community health priorities. This led to collaborative action to communicate specific messages around water contamination and access across governance, community, and institutional boundaries. We demonstrate how our co-constructed approach and boundary work allows for the respectful and reciprocal development of these long-term research partnerships and works in solidarity with the Two-Row Wampum (Kaswentha) treaty established by the Haudenosaunee Nation and European settler nations. 

scholarly journals Lights Off, Spot On: Carbon Literacy Training Crossing Boundaries in the Television Industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 162 (4) ◽  
pp. 813-834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Chapple ◽  
Petra Molthan-Hill ◽  
Rachel Welton ◽  
Michael Hewitt
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Transformational Change ◽  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Soap Opera ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Literacy Training ◽  
Learning And Change ◽  
Industry Success

AbstractProclaimed the “greenest television programme in the world,” the award-winning soap opera Coronation Street is seen as an industry success story. This paper explores how the integration of carbon literacy training (CLT) led to a widespread transformational change of practice within Coronation Street. Using the theoretical lens of Communities of Practice (CoP), this study examines the nature of social learning and the enablers and barriers to change within the organization. Specifically, how boundary spanning practices, objects and people led to the transformation on both a personal and group level. Based on a qualitative analysis of 22 interviews with Heads of Departments and other staff, the paper argues that CLT is a boundary practice which has evolved into a boundary spanning CoP. The importance of infrastructures supporting boundary objects and practices is highlighted as reinforcers of the CLT, both as a boundary object and a community, with the “ultimate” boundary spanning object being the show. A significant enabler in social learning and change in practice is the creation of discursive and creative space, both within CoP and across the boundaries. Findings also highlight the role of “self” in the process of social learning and organizational change. Distinct patterns emerged in the relationship between self-identity, social learning and change across a range of boundary objects, practices and communities both in the CLT and CoP. This suggests that in a diverse social learning setting such as CLT there are different transformational catalysts within the CoP and these identities can influence how knowledge is translated into practice.

scholarly journals Expressive Cartography, Boundary Objects and the Aesthetics of Public Visualization

Leonardo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 509-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricio Dávila ◽  
Dave Colangelo ◽  
Maggie Chan ◽  
Robert Tu
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Multiple Modalities ◽  
Object A ◽  
Community Stakeholders ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Way

Aesthetic visualization projects that incorporate users, community stakeholders, multiple modalities and technologies emphasize the way that an artistic visualization can be both an artifact and a process—a conceptualization of aesthetic visualization that is useful for thinking about visualization in general. In this article, the authors propose the concept of the visualization as boundary object, a move away from the indexical claims of visualization and instead toward an acknowledgment of the entangled nature of social, political, economic, cultural, technological and environmental actants. Through a description of the In the Air, Tonight public visualization project, the authors suggest that by making manifest the connections between these actants, a visualization project, as a form of expressive cartography, can contribute to the visibility of and engagement with important issues (e.g. homelessness) that affect society.

Amplifying Indigenous community participation in place-based research through boundary work

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1020-1043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Zurba ◽  
Kirsten Maclean ◽  
Emma Woodward ◽  
Durdana Islam
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Research Communities ◽  
Political Boundaries

‘Boundary work’ is a relatively new and innovative qualitative approach in place-based research and often involves the creation of ‘boundary objects’. Such objects can be created collaboratively with Indigenous communities, and can be used to communicate knowledge, values and aspirations across social and political boundaries. This article provides an account of boundary work within place-based research communities of practice developed between geographers and Indigenous communities. We draw on our own boundary work research and present a conceptual framework for geographers to draw on when engaging in boundary work and co-creating boundary objects with Indigenous communities.

scholarly journals ‘Greenwich near London’: the Royal Observatory and its London networks in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
REBEKAH HIGGITT
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Mathematical Practice ◽  
Mathematical Community ◽  
Knowledge Networks ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
Personal Connections ◽  
Knowledge And Practice ◽  
The City

AbstractBuilt in Greenwich in 1675–1676, the Royal Observatory was situated outside the capital but was deeply enmeshed within its knowledge networks and communities of practice. Scholars have tended to focus on the links cultivated by the Astronomers Royal within scholarly communities in England and Europe but the observatory was also deeply reliant on and engaged with London's institutions and practical mathematical community. It was a royal foundation, situated within one government board, taking a leading role on another, and overseen by Visitors selected by the Royal Society of London. These links helped develop institutional continuity, while instrument-makers, assistants and other collaborators, who were often active in the city as mathematical authors and teachers, formed an extended community with interest in the observatory's continued existence. After outlining the often highly contingent institutional and personal connections that shaped and supported the observatory, this article considers the role of two early assistants, James Hodgson and Thomas Weston. By championing John Flamsteed's legacy and sharing observatory knowledge and practice beyond its walls, they ensured awareness of and potential users for its outputs. They and their successors helped to develop a particular, and ultimately influential, approach to astronomical and mathematical practice and teaching.

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