Taking the emergence of the first vegetarian organization in Victorian England as a case, this article argues that “what vegetarianism is” is an ongoing social process that is determined by how social actors link its boundaries. Although in hindsight, people tend to take what an idea is for granted and treat it as a constant, what an idea was, is, and will be in fact depends heavily on what ideas can penetrate the boundaries of the specific idea and vice versa. Adopting Abbott’s alternative approach that boundaries come before entities, the case study of the emergence of modern vegetarianism serves to further illustrate the complexity between boundaries and entities and the emergent aspect of the process of “boundaries-into-entities.” A connection is also made to align Abbott’s suggested approach with Star and Griesemer’s ecological approach.
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