Flat ontology and the deconstruction of scale: a response to Marston, Jones and Woodward

Translocal assemblages: Space, power and social movements

“…Indeed, a topological conception of spatiality, I would argue, should be attentive to how scale or network, as particular spatial imaginaries, become key devices used by actors as they attempt to structure or narrate assemblages (Legg, forthcoming;Leitner, et al, 2008). While recent debates in geography have focussed on the possible abandonment of scalar vocabularies in favour of, for instance, networks, mobilities, or flat ontologies (see Marston et al, 2005;Collinge, 2006;Escobar, 2006;Jonas, 2006;Leitner and Miller, 2007;Jones et al, 2007), refusing to use scalar concepts is a fruitless strategy given the prevalence of scalar narratives of political, economic, social and environmental relations that we encounter as researchers on a daily basis. As Allen and Cochrane (2007) have argued in relation to their work on regions, the politics of scale is an epistemological fact, often deployed as a means of capturing or rationalising tangled, dispersed assemblages (and see Brenner, 2000;Swyngedouw, 1997Swyngedouw, , 2000.…”

The challenges of the “material turn” for planning studies

“…It sees all scales as immanent in any situation, with networks, rhizomes, entanglements or assemblages extending from the local to the global and vice versa and in between and back and forth again. The reality of macro structures such as nested scales is acknowledged but shown to be sustained through networks of heterogeneous associations; scale is co-constructed through associations in long chains (Collinge, 2006). Hommels (2005) has criticised the "embeddedness" approach (which is akin to the perspective discussed here) for being excessively local, but this is because of a failure to appreciate these longer chains of association implied by a flat ontology.…”

“…Rather, causal influences are seen to arise from all levels at the same time and to impact mutually. The flat ontology has implications, sometimes controversial implications for the notion of scale (Marston, Jones, & Woodward, 2005;Collinge, 2006). The networked relationships of any specific situation are, in this view, simultaneously constituted as local, regional, national and global.…”

Pensar topográficamente: Lugar, espacio y geografía

“…Marston, 2000;Marston et al, 2005). Centrales ahí han sido tanto la discusión en torno a las denominadas «flat (non-scalar) ontologies» (Collinge, 2006;Springer, 2014), como las recientes propuestas de un «giro topológico» (Allen, 2011a(Allen, , 2001bPaasi, 2011). Ambas han conllevado la reivindicación de un punto de vista topológico (elaborado, en la mayoría de los casos, a partir de las teorías actor-red), argumentándose, grosso modo, en su favor que, dada la importancia en el mundo globalizado de las cuestiones de proximidad, distancia y alcance, dicho enfoque topológico sería más eficaz que las perspectivas territoriales o topográficas tradicionales en la tarea de comprensión de las cambiantes geografías del poder en el mundo actual.…”