The Paradox of the Boundary Creature

Abstract: Within the burgeoning literature of how market representations is performing markets, recent research has suggested looking at how conceptual boundaries are affecting the market onto which they are drawn. One key aspect of this type of framing is the relation between market formations and the performative power of the law, of which relatively little has been written. This thesis is therefore set out to describe the relationship between the law as a conceptual boundary and how it shapes markets, but also how market enactments challenges the frames created by the law. In order to grasp this relationship, a profound investigation of boundaries constituency has been conducted in order to conceptualize the boundary as an object, to make it something that we can understand. Coming to grips with the paradoxical nature of the boundary requires an ontological and epistemological discourse around what they are, and how we can understand them, which is done through a conceptual analysis of boundaries. In this body of work, the boundary is defined as an entity in its own right, where its materiality is defined as a conflict. This conflict in turn is of great interest in terms of market delineations, as the complexity arising when a frame is created is on the basis of excluding something, also including the very same thing. The resilience of the boundary depends on what investments that are put into it, which is a delicate thing, because if the conceptual boundaries bracketing the world is no longer cohesive with its material nature, then the latter gallops on, leaving the perception of reality misunderstood.