A critical view on the role of scale and instrumental imaginaries within community sustainability transitions research

Abstract

Research has recently focused on various under-the-radar sustainability-oriented community initiatives to understand and support bottom-up dynamics of social-ecological change. While community initiatives vary widely, research on them tends towards an instrumental perspective: a will-to-upscale. While exploring possibilities for expanding (some of) the practices and impacts of sustainability-oriented projects and organizations, we argue for a more cautious approach to instrumentalising community initiatives. We develop our argument around four recurring issues we identify in the literature: (1) conceptual imprecisions; (2) privileging of novelties; (3) politics of urgency; and (4) outwards orientation. In response to these critiques, and leaning on geographical theories of scale, we outline our caution. At its core, this approach is a ‘literacy of scaling’ where scaling functions as a tactic subordinate to the community.