Gorman constructs a continuum of “collaborativity” (my word) that corresponds with three basic types of trading zones:
“The first is a network controlled by an ´elite in which there really is no trade: those not in the ´elite either obey, or they are ignored. …The second is a boundary-object trading zone, where experts from different fields interact around the development of a technology or system – like radar or MRI. Here the system of concern serves as an object that links the participants in the network, but experts from different fields see the boundary object in ways dictated by their expertise. … Contributory expertise brings us to the third kind of trading zone, in which the participants share a common understanding of a goal and collaborate closely. In the parlance of cognitive science, they must share a continually evolving representation of a techno-social system that would normally serve as a boundary object” (Gorman 2002, 934).
