Geographical Demarcations

Born out of purely local initiative, the Societe chimique was soon able to attract many non-Parisians (including a large number of foreigners). The society s boundary-work consistently aimed at expanding its area of control beyond the metropolitan region and gaining authority over the entire French chemical landscape. Simultaneously, in order to reinforce its status as a national representative body, the society promoted its agenda on the international scene. 

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Fig. 6.14 Distributions of (a) 02 (pM) and (b) N02 (pM) in the upper kilometre along the track of TN039 cruise of US JGOFS. The inset in panel (b) shows the station locations and the geographical extent of the Arabian Sea denitrification zone as demarcated by the 0.5 pM N()2 contour (Naqvi, 1991).

Generally, when estimates of coal supply are developed, there must be a line of demarcation between coal reserves and resources. Reserves are coal deposits that can be mined economically with existing technology, or current equipment and methods. Resources are an estimate of the total coal deposits, regardless of whether the deposits are commercially accessible. For example, world coal reserves were estimated to be in excess of 1 trillion tons (1 x 10 tons) and world coal resources were estimated to be approximately 10 trillion tons (10 x 10 tons) and are geographically distributed in Europe, including all of Russia and the other countries that made up the Soviet Union, North America, Asia, Australia, Africa, and South America (Table 1.4). 

As a disciplinary society the Societe chimique had to do boundary-work demarcate its field of expertise, erecting rhetorical boundaries between what chemistry was supposed to be and what it was not supposed to be. The society s disciplinary boundary-work included both monopolizing and expansion of authority. Especially under Wurtz s charismatic leadership, the society tried to take epistemic control in order to advocate certain scientific ideas, as the example of his arduous campaign for atomism shows. The society furthermore pursued both disciplinary and geographical expansion, while trying to suppress competing authority claims made by industrial chemists and the provincial sections, among others. 

Figure 2.7 shows an exemplary analysis of strategic groups within the automotive industry. Here the two different demarcation variables which best distinguish the business strategy and competitive position of the company, product range and geographical scope, are used for the analysis. 

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