A Geographic Look at Scale as an Tool to Build Reality

https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n39.04

Cristina Valenzuela
Conicet – Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Argentina
valenzueladepompert@gmail.com

Abstract:

This work aims to reflect upon scale as a tool of analysis and interpretation of the real world from a geographic perspective. In this vein, we will first examine the ontologic, epistemological, and pragmatic implications of scale as a concept. Then we will proceed to apply those reflections on deeply relevant problems for life in the 21^st century. These arguments are founded on the need to rethink scale, as long as it is a sociocultural, fluid, and highly contingent construct while essential to understanding geographic processes of space construction. Given that choosing a scale involves selecting a specific level of generalization as a point of departure to construct reality, that choice is never neuter in its consequences. Hence the need to delve into scales and their incidence in the understanding of spatial issues.

Keywords: geographic scales, analysis, geographic space.