How does scale mean? A critical approach to scale in the study of policy

ABSTRACT

This article argues that a critical engagement with the categories and concepts of scale has been absent in policy studies. Integrating insights from post-structuralist human geography and policy analysis, the article reveals the multiple meanings actors assign to scales as they make sense of and construct their policy worlds, and also questions the implications of this for the practices and politics of policy. This analytical lens is applied to an empirical example of the policy work involved in implementing England’s academy schools policy in a local authority case study. Four scalar practices emerge from the analysis: dissolving boundaries of scale, shifting between scales, constructing boundaries between scales and emphasizing the interconnectedness of scales. Analysis reveals how critically engaging with how actors construct and mobilize scale can develop a new angle on the political logics shaping policy practices and thus enhance understandings of political struggles over meaning in policy-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Scale
• critical policy studies
• post-structuralist human geography
• political logics
• academy schools policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Acknowledgements

This paper has benefitted enormously from conversations with Steven Griggs and I would like to thank him for his constructive comments on an earlier draft of the paper. In addition, the research would not have been possible without the research participants generously giving up their time to be interviewed. Thanks also go to the two anonymous reviewers for their critical comments. Finally, any and all shortcomings are my own.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council under grant number ESI01943X/1.

Notes on contributors

Natalie Papanastasiou

Natalie Papanastasiou is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Edinburgh where she recently completed her doctorate at the School of Social and Political Science. Her research lies at the interface of critical policy studies and human geography, a theoretical approach which she has thus far explored in relation to the area of education policy and governance.