Querying Collaboration

Gorman, Michael E. “Levels of Expertise and Trading Zones: A Framework for Multidisciplinary Collaboration.” Social Studies of Science 32, no. 5–6 (December 2002): 933–38.

Michael Gorman discusses the utility of the concepts "boundary objects" and "trading zones" in the study of collaborations across differing levels of expertise.Read more

Star, Susan Leigh, and James R. Griesemer. “Institutional Ecology, `Translations’ and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39.” Social Studies of Science 19, no. 3 (August 1989): 387–420.

Abstract: Scientific work is heterogeneous, requiring many different actors and viewpoints. It also requires cooperation. The two create tension between divergent viewpoints and the need for generalizable findings. We present a model of how one group of actors managed this tension. It draws on...Read more

Halpern, Megan K., Ingrid Erickson, Laura Forlano, and Geri K. Gay. “Designing Collaboration: Comparing Cases Exploring Cultural Probes as Boundary-Negotiating Objects,” 1093. ACM Press, 2013.

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the use of cultural probes as a method for fostering collaboration within groups of diverse experts working on creative projects. Using two case examples, we show that probes—short, oblique, and at times whimsical sets of activity prompts—have boundary object...Read more

Collins, Harry, Robert Evans, and Mike Gorman. “Trading Zones and Interactional Expertise.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 38, no. 4 (December 2007): 657–66.

Abstract: The phrase ‘trading zone’ is often used to denote any kind of interdisciplinary partnership in which two or more perspectives are combined
and a new, shared language develops. In this paper we distinguish between different types of trading zone by asking whether the
collaboration...Read more

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