The Problem of Cognizability of the Spatiality of Existing Phenomena and Scales

Abstract

This article discusses several ways in which social scientists from different disciplines consider the problem of scales (geographical and cartographic). It also problematizes the relationship with space and spatiality of existing phenomena and processes. Some terms used in the discussion of scales were promoted in the second half of the twentieth century in the scenario of the irruption of Quantitative Geography in other social sciences disciplines and the non-positivist intellectual responses. Other elements produced nowadays are incorporated into these disputes, considering the influence of the neoliberal globalization process on the spatial changes (trade relations, production, and relocation of labor force), the geopolitical variations and the technological developments of spatial knowledge. The article concludes that although there are different ways of approaching scales and spatiality, this diversity does not limit any access to spatiality of existing processes and phenomena knowledge. Attention is drawn to the fact that the adoption of intelligibility resources in the field of scales and spatiality is neither neutral nor ingenuous.