Fertile Boundaries for Field Building

Abstract

The chapters in this issue are a clarion call for the science of learning and development to create productive, sustainable, and care-centered partnerships across academic fields that extend into partnerships with local communities. While applauding the wisdom of this communitarian aspiration, this commentary cautions that forming productive intellectual peerages between the often viewed as elite and distant Academy and local communities, who too often feel ignored, undeserved, and oppressed, is difficult. To mitigate some of the anticipated challenges, this commentary suggests that what is needed is for both scholars and local scholar-practitioners to intentionally create intellectual safe spaces—boundary areas—where new intricate ideas and complex interpersonal relationships might be given time to flourish and thrive.