In this Book
- Scale: Discourse and Dimensions of Social Life
- Book
- 2016
- Published by: University of California Press
-
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
summary
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Wherever we turn, we see diverse things scaled for us, from cities to economies, from history to love. We know scale by many names and through many familiar antinomies: local and global,micro and macroevents to name a few. Even the most critical among us often proceed with our analysis as if such scales were the ready-made platforms of social life, rather than asking how, why, and to what effect are scalar distinctions forged in the first place.
How do scalar distinctions help actors and analysts alike make sense of and navigate their social worlds? What do these distinctions reveal and what do they conceal? How are scales construed and what effects do they have on the way those who abide by them think and act? This pathbreaking volume attends to the practical labor of scale-making and the communicative practices this labor requires. From an ethnographic perspective, the authors demonstrate that scale is practice and process before it becomes product, whether in the work of projecting the commons, claiming access to the big picture, or scaling the seriousness of a crime.
Wherever we turn, we see diverse things scaled for us, from cities to economies, from history to love. We know scale by many names and through many familiar antinomies: local and global,micro and macroevents to name a few. Even the most critical among us often proceed with our analysis as if such scales were the ready-made platforms of social life, rather than asking how, why, and to what effect are scalar distinctions forged in the first place.
How do scalar distinctions help actors and analysts alike make sense of and navigate their social worlds? What do these distinctions reveal and what do they conceal? How are scales construed and what effects do they have on the way those who abide by them think and act? This pathbreaking volume attends to the practical labor of scale-making and the communicative practices this labor requires. From an ethnographic perspective, the authors demonstrate that scale is practice and process before it becomes product, whether in the work of projecting the commons, claiming access to the big picture, or scaling the seriousness of a crime.
Table of Contents


- PART ONE. SCALAR PROJECTS: PROMISES AND PRECARITIES
- PART TWO. INTERSCALARITY: IMAGINATION AND INSTITUTION
- Balancing the Scales of Justice in Tonga
- pp. 112-132
- Interscaling Awe, De-escalating Disaster
- pp. 133-156
- PART THREE. PREDATORY SCALES: ENCOMPASSMENT AND EVALUATION
- Scaling Red and the Horror of Trademark
- pp. 159-184
- Acknowledgments
- p. 233
- References Cited
- pp. 235-250
- Contributors
- pp. 251-253
Additional Information
ISBN
9780520965430
Related ISBN(s)
9780520291799
MARC Record
OCLC
1088381192
Pages
276
Launched on MUSE
2019-02-26
Language
English
Open Access
Yes
Creative Commons
CC-BY