Scale' and the Instituted Construction of the Urban

Contrasting the Cases of Manchester and Lyon

Bibliographic Data

ID4746396
AuthorsSally Randle (0000-0001-8166-5888, University of Manchester, corresponding author), Sally Randles (University of Manchester), Peter Dicken (University of Manchester, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume36
Issue11
Pages2011-2032
Publication date2004-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1068/a3694
OpenAlexW1977811186
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited41

This paper combines recent advances which appreciate the ontological intricacies of scale; with the (re)turn of institutional perspectives on social and economic life and its governance. The authors use these perspectives to understand better questions of contingency, difference, and indeed convergence when comparing the historical process of scale construction and political governance (both institution building and image/narrative building) in two European cities. The paper thus reveals contrasting scalar strategies of interurban competition in two city case studies. The authors first outline the main theoretical and conceptual developments in the now burgeoning literature on scale, adding that in their opinion the perpetual construction and reconstruction of scale is not only an example of socially instituted process, but also one of constructed variety. The authors go on to propose a musical metaphor-a keyboard of scale-to capture the properties of simultaneity, elasticity, and multiplicity in scale construction, and use this metaphor to frame the discussion of the two cases. The authors conclude that when comparing cities-indeed all superficially commensurable territorial units-we must be sensitive to the specificity of scale construction in each and every instance. For example, the cases reported here demonstrate that a range of meanings shelter under the umbrella of the 'urban'. Moreover, these meanings are reconstituted and reconfigured through history

Cartography · Contingency · Corporate governance · Economic geography · Economics · Epistemology · Geography · Interurban · Management · Metaphor · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Scale (ratio) · Social science · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics) · Computer Science · Engineering · French Urban and Social Studies · Law · Urban Planning and Governance

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