{"title":"A critical view on the role of scale and instrumental imaginaries within community sustainability transitions research","authors":"Benedikt Schmid, Gerald Taylor Aiken","doi":"10.1111/area.12884","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Research has recently focused on various under-the-radar sustainability-oriented community initiatives to understand and support bottom-up dynamics of social-ecological change. While community initiatives vary widely, research on them tends towards an instrumental perspective: a will-to-upscale. While exploring possibilities for expanding (some of) the practices and impacts of sustainability-oriented projects and organizations, we argue for a more cautious approach to instrumentalising community initiatives. We develop our argument around four recurring issues we identify in the literature: (1) conceptual imprecisions; (2) privileging of novelties; (3) politics of urgency; and (4) outwards orientation. In response to these critiques, and leaning on geographical theories of scale, we outline our caution. At its core, this approach is a ‘literacy of scaling’ where scaling functions as a tactic subordinate to the community.</p>","PeriodicalId":8422,"journal":{"name":"Area","volume":"55 4","pages":"506-513"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/area.12884","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Area","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/area.12884","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Research has recently focused on various under-the-radar sustainability-oriented community initiatives to understand and support bottom-up dynamics of social-ecological change. While community initiatives vary widely, research on them tends towards an instrumental perspective: a will-to-upscale. While exploring possibilities for expanding (some of) the practices and impacts of sustainability-oriented projects and organizations, we argue for a more cautious approach to instrumentalising community initiatives. We develop our argument around four recurring issues we identify in the literature: (1) conceptual imprecisions; (2) privileging of novelties; (3) politics of urgency; and (4) outwards orientation. In response to these critiques, and leaning on geographical theories of scale, we outline our caution. At its core, this approach is a ‘literacy of scaling’ where scaling functions as a tactic subordinate to the community.
期刊介绍：
Area publishes ground breaking geographical research and scholarship across the field of geography. Whatever your interests, reading Area is essential to keep up with the latest thinking in geography. At the cutting edge of the discipline, the journal: • is the debating forum for the latest geographical research and ideas • is an outlet for fresh ideas, from both established and new scholars • is accessible to new researchers, including postgraduate students and academics at an early stage in their careers • contains commentaries and debates that focus on topical issues, new research results, methodological theory and practice and academic discussion and debate • provides rapid publication
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