Scale and research in geography. Problem or solution?

Abstract

Scale has been a recurrent theme in Geography in the last decades. Perspectives, debates and controversies concerning scale occupy a large number of articles and books which leaves very little new to say about the concept. However, given the profusion of proposals and conceptions concerning scale, confusion is eventually inevitable so that the concept is not always easily to apply in empirical situations. This is an inescapable paradox for anyone focusing on the theme: important ontological debates and the lack of clear application of scale as a methodological resource ultimately results in the very negation of the significance of the concept for Human Geography and for marking spatial divisions. The basic proposition here is reconsider a methodological perspective of scale as a fundamental operational problem for defining analytical spaces as significant phenomena for research in Geography.