Negotiating Disciplinary Boundaries

Abstract

This article, in responding to the Presidential address by Immanuel Wallerstein, agrees that current disciplinary divisions leave a lot to be desired, but warns against simple abandonment. Instead, it is proposed that we engage far more in boundary-crossing negotiations. This in turn, however, would involve rethinking what we mean by `boundary' and by `disciplinary identity'. The example of studies of globalization is taken as a case in point. Leading from this, the argument is made for particular negotiations with `economics'. Finally, the article touches on the already deepening relationship between sociology and geography (and history) in arguing for the importance - in all of the social sciences - of thinking in terms of spacetime.