The limits to scale? Methodological reflections on scalar structuration

Fruitful new avenues of theorization and research have been opened by recen t writings on the production of geographical scale. However, this outpourin g of research on scale production and on rescaling processes has been accom panied by a notable analytical blunting of the concept of geographical scal e as it has been blended unreflexively into other core geographical concept s such as place, locality territory and space. This essay explores this met hodological danger: first, through a critical reading of Sallie Marston's ( 2000) recent article in this journal on 'The social construction of scale'; second, through a critical examination of the influential notion of a poli tics 'of' scale. A concluding section suggests that our theoretical grasp o f geographical scale could be significantly advanced if scaling processes a xe distinguished more precisely from other major dimensions of sociospatial structuration under capitalism. Eleven methodological hypotheses for confr onting this task are then proposed.