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Scale, causality, complexity and emergence: rethinking scale’s ontological significance
Author(s) -
Chapura Mitch
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
transactions of the institute of british geographers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.196
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1475-5661
pISSN - 0020-2754
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2009.00356.x
Subject(s) - causality (physics) , epistemology , scale (ratio) , positivism , sociology , positive economics , social science , philosophy , geography , economics , physics , cartography , quantum mechanics
Scale remains a pivotal yet highly contentious concept in geography. I survey the lively discussions engaged in recently by many critical/radical geographers regarding the theoretical status of scale. While these discussions have been intellectually fruitful, I argue that much more needs to be said. Drawing from complex systems theory, I argue that scale should be understood as an ontological category essential to understanding causality. Revalorising Aristotle’s four categories of cause – formal, final, material and efficient – from two centuries of positivist thinking facilitates this endeavour. Research on the relationship between university‐based poultry scientists and the poultry industry illustrates the explanatory potential of poly‐scalar analysis.