Boundary Objects and Beyond presents Susan Leigh Star’s work as a decisive contribution to science and technology studies, especially through her analysis of infrastructure, marginality and boundary objects. The concept of the boundary object describes forms, tools, classifications or representations that can be shared across different social worlds while remaining flexible enough to carry different meanings for each group. This makes the concept especially useful for understanding collaboration without assuming consensus. The volume, edited by Bowker, Timmermans, Clarke and Balka, collects Star’s writings alongside essays by colleagues, showing how her work transformed the study of classification systems, invisible labour and infrastructural politics. A central case is scientific cooperation: researchers, administrators, technicians and institutions may all use the same object—a form, database, map, specimen or protocol—while interpreting it according to divergent local needs. Rather than seeing this ambiguity as failure, Star shows that such plasticity often makes cooperation possible. The book’s broader force lies in demonstrating that infrastructure is not merely technical support; it is a social and ethical arrangement that distributes visibility, authority and exclusion. Its conclusion is that knowledge depends on boundary objects capable of holding together heterogeneous communities without erasing difference, and on infrastructure that must be studied from the standpoint of those who maintain, inhabit or are marginalised by it.
