Secondly, the identity of the field is relatively weak.
There is a large group of researchers who identify with
the field and share the core beliefs. However, these
researchers do very different kinds of research, and
most of them have bdouble identitiesQ (or more than
double) and also relate to other reputational organizations.
The field has no clear boundaries in relation to
other fields, and researchers from other fields can easily
provide contributions that are considered relevant.
Whether the field should have clearer boundaries is
highly contested, as is the way in which they should be
defined; researchers from related fields, such as
environmental economics, also intervene in this definition
struggle. Regarding the reputational autonomy
of the field, it can be argued that the field has some
control over its own competence and performance
standards as well as over the relative importance of
different research problems and strategies through the
journal, other publications and conferences. But this
does not carry much weight as the standards and
priorities are contested inside the framework of the
field, and as most researchers are also dependent on
acknowledgement from academics from other fields (in
particular from the old disciplines) to obtain research
funding and establish a career.