Understanding Boundaries

A definition: Figuratively, a boundary marks the limits of an activity or experience; in this meaning it is often modified by an adjective such as ‘religious’ or a noun such as ‘class’. As an extension of this meaning, a boundary is also an imaginary point that separates different qualities or ideas. In this sense it is often followed by the preposition ‘between’. If you say that something knows no boundaries, it has no real or imagined limits.1

Community is about group formation. It implies a commonality and boundaries. That is, there is some sort of marker -- be it territorial or categorical (eg. gender, race, age, hobby) -- that separates one group from another, thereby engendering a sense of belonging. Indeed, belonging comes from a sense of likeness: “we” not “them.”

As real as boundaries feel, they are largely socially constructed. They offer a way to slice and dice reality so we can grasp and make meaning from it. The categories we create are powerful and have significant effects on people’s lives, regardless of how arbitrary they might be. How might foundations and community-based organizations come to learn about the history of boundary lines, and probe sources of commonality and difference within and between groups?

Understanding how different people and cultures construe and perceive boundaries can be a starting point for building bridges, sharing power, and deepening cross-community ties. This is the work that can enable us to live in the tension between communities of choice and communities of kinship.

While categorizing people and issues can respond to a human desire for tidiness or simplicity, rigid boundaries can also hold problems in place and further marginalize people. After all, issues and communities are rarely treated as equal. We assign them differing levels of priority and value.

As podcast guests Miu Yan and Ryane Nickens argue, we need a multiplicity of spaces of belonging. Miu Chan argues that identity-based communities can be very important to our sense of pride and esteem; for example, membership in a Chinese Cultural Association or a 2SLGBTQ+ new parent group. However, when we are only part of identity-based communities, and those communities are marginalized from centres of power, our wellbeing is negatively affected and others are making decisions without the benefit of our perspective.

In contrast, a sense of belonging in highly heterogeneous communities, such as families with a student enrolled in a metropolitan public school or those working with Ryane Nickens’ TraRon Center to end gun violence, can allow us to build solidarity, trust, and mutual understanding where previously there was none. These are ingredients that nourish individual flourishing in a modern world but are also essential on a collective level to increase our capacity to address wicked problems, which tend to span boundaries.

So, where do foundations fit into the mix? When and how do they support healthy boundaries or challenge unhealthy boundaries?

We need spaces where our identities, lived experiences, and worldviews are understood and appreciated. And, we need to cross lines of difference to question boundaries and find points of connection. Otherwise, community becomes an isolating ghetto, too much defined by conflicts with other communities.

Meet two scholars who are re-imagining boundaries and belonging based on their study of the belief systems of distinct Indigenous cultures and geographies. The diverse perspectives that they offer can lead us to a different question:

Thom’s work interprets the contemporary land claim maps put forth by Coast Salish political leaders, which encompass a much greater area than historic maps created by ethnographers. Maps submitted on behalf of different nations show broader and overlapping territory because, Thom argues, they depict a way of thinking and being in which territory is defined through property, language, residence, and identity, but also, practices of kin, travel, descent, and sharing.2

Coast Salish might belong to a place if they reside there seasonally, depend upon it, and are in relation with others who depend upon it.

Ngcoya continues: “So you are basically 'in' as long as you have declared that you reside here. It's not based on some natural or some legalistic notion that you belong here because you hold a book, a passport, or a document that declares that you belong here... That's what I always remind people when I meet in spaces where people are decrying the amount of people, the numbers of people who have 'invaded' South Africa, as some people put it, that actually they come here because this is how we are supposed to treat them: welcome them because there is no Other, there is no foreign Other in our traditional ways of thinking."

"Sure, traditional ways of thinking are never really fully fixed, so they change. But it's important to remind people that, historically, this is how we've always behaved. The idea of strangers, the idea of outsiders, we don't have these...People are judged by their actions and by their intentions: how they choose to categorize themselves. And if they show that they belong, by establishing a residence in a place, therefore they are part of the community."

In a Zulu worldview, people belong through virtue of their actions: building a home, or committing themselves to a place.

• 
  Boundaries are socially constructed

  What separates one community from another is often a bit arbitrary, based on the ideas of time and place, but they are nonetheless powerful. Understanding how different people and cultures construe and perceive boundaries is a starting point for building bridges, sharing power, and deepening cross-community ties.
  
• 
  Belonging to a place is also socially constructed!

  The Coast Salish, the Zulu, and other cultures have different criteria for belonging to a place or claiming rights to a territory. There are many tensions to hold when it comes to different ideas about community and belonging!
  
• 
  We need a multiplicity of spaces of belonging

  Identity-based communities can engender pride and self-esteem, and more heterogeneous communities can increase safety, empathy, and solidarity, which are crucial to building healthier, more equitable communities.
  
• 
  The role(s) of foundations

  Foundations can champion minority interests and build networks of solidarity across boundaries, but must open-up dialogue with groups to discern where and when.

Experiences & Observations

To which communities do you belong? Which are based on identity markers and which are based on your behaviours, experiences, or location?

Reactions & Impressions

What are your thoughts or feelings about when philanthropies champion minority interests or work to build solidarity across boundaries?

Questions & Hunches To Test

In reference to a foundation you are close to, ask people you interact with, professionally or personally, whether they feel some sense of ownership over the foundation and why. What beliefs underlie people’s answers?