Scale and Anti‐Scale

Abstract

Scale is an important and contested concept in geography. In both its historical and contemporary use, it defines a system of measurement for the purposes of mapping. In recent decades, scale has also played a role in the social theorization of the discipline. Proponents maintain that social processes produce different spatial scales (e.g., locality, region, nation, and globe), and that these spatial configurations rebound on how economic, political, and cultural processes operate. Another group of theorists are “anti‐scale.” They acknowledge that scale is a powerful way of thinking spatially and they recognize that scalar discourses have political implications. But they view the concept as ontologically hierarchical and structuralist, and as detached from the practices and material workings of bodies and objects. Though diverse in orientation, they collectively endorse a “flat” ontology derived from the works of Gilles Deleuze, Bruno Latour, and others.

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