臺灣社會九十年代社區總體營造風潮之後，關於「在地性」（locality）的課題極為要緊，「在地性」到底具有哪些特質，在不斷的現代性、都市化、全球化、符號消費化等外來力量衝擊後，「在地性」將會呈現哪些轉型的趨勢？同時，社造運動的外來行動者，也持續帶來關於長遠社會改革的知識實作與理念範疇，這些外來的知識與範疇，最終將會如何與在地既有的知識與範疇產生有意義的對話與轉型？本文由「邊界」（boundary）的概念入手，嘗試界定並探討「在地性」的性質。任何社造行動者都需在血緣、地緣、祭祀圈所造就的在地性邊界內，同時進行「邊界維繫」與「社會改革」的雙重行動。在地性邊界的歸屬感之下，也使村落社區或街道巷弄形成了代代相傳的「地方知識」與「在地範疇」。地方知識可再次分為「認知化的常識」與「身體化的技術」，後者更能以自身風格迎向外來的「專家知識」，進行有意義的相互轉譯。在社造風潮中，在地範疇最具重要性的即是「公共性」的範疇，在公共參與、公民社會與公民性的外來範疇引領下，在地性必須在實作中重啟想像力，找出以在地範疇有效轉譯外來範疇的新方向。

In the wake of community making in Taiwan’s society in the 1990s, the issue of locality has become urgent. What characterizes "locality"? From outside the community, those actors engaged in the movement of community making hold a set of knowledge and practice, as well as conceptual categories, about long-term social reform; how would these ideas about knowledge and categories from outside influence, or be influenced by, those rooted in the locality? This paper intervenes in the discussion of locality from the concept of "boundary," with a view to defining and complicating the meaning of "locality." The actors engaged in community making are required to commit themselves to the double actions, "boundary maintenence" and "social reform," within the boundaries of the locality, established by kinship, local connections, and worships. In the movement of community making, the most significant aspect of indigenous category is "public engagement." Under the influence of those extrinsic categories, such as civil society and citizenship, locality has to be reconsidered in practice and a new way of translating the extrinsic categories into indigenous categories has to be discovered.