Scalar Promiscuity

Definition

Scalar promiscuity is Schafran, Lopez and Gin's geopolitical strategy term, introduced to this wiki via Keil's article: "Not only do proper social movements exist in exurbia, but that they function in a hyper multiscalar fashion, with key players engaging simultaneously at different scales in different partnerships and formations on often fairly disparate issues. We define this as 'scalar promiscuity', a geopolitical strategy which differs from the 'scale jumping' (Smith, 1995) often discussed in the literature, for this is less a response to a rescaling imposed from above — either by more powerful institutions or by changes in regional and global economies — and rather a response to the always-already fragmented nature of politics, governance, and service provision embedded in exurban space" (quoted in Keil 2015, p. 590).

The concept's distinctiveness is its direction of causation: where "scale jumping" (Smith 1995) names movement upward against an imposed rescaling, scalar promiscuity names movement across an always-already fragmented terrain — the exurban condition of fragmented politics, governance and service provision is the given, not the imposition. The movement is opportunistic and promiscuous across scales, partnerships and issues simultaneously. Keil's addition: "once the Tieboutian scale has been jumped all manner of spatial reorientations in the region and beyond are possible" (Keil 2000, cited p. 590), and "the politics of scaling (jumping, promiscuity, etc.) is tightly connected to the territoriality of shifting discourses and technologies of mobility… that allow various parts of the region differentiated access to the opportunities of the region and keep others from them" (pp. 590–591).

This page requires fuller treatment — created at the Keil ingest; Schafran et al.'s full argument (Environment and Planning A 45, 2013) and Smith's scale-jumping lineage await their own treatment (see log).

Key Thinkers

• Alex Schafran, O.S. Lopez & J.L. Gin (not yet paged — see log) — the concept's authors: "Politics and possibility on the metropolitan edge: the scale of social movement space in exurbia" (2013)
• Roger Keil — the concept's transmitter: the right-to-the-suburb circuit (Carpio et al. via Schafran) and the Tieboutian-scale formulation (2000, 2015)
• Neil Smith (not yet paged — see log) — the 'scale jumping' theorist (1995) the strategy is distinguished from
• Gilles Deleuze — the smooth/striated backdrop of the multiscalar field (distant ancestor via the rescaling literature)

Related Concepts

• everyday-suburbanism — the movements whose strategy scalar promiscuity describes
• suburban-governance — the "always-already fragmented" governance terrain the strategy responds to
• right-to-the-city — the claim's tradition: "the right to the suburb" (Carpio et al.) is the circuit the concept enters by
• territory — the territoriality of mobility technologies the scaling is tied to
• time-geography — the differentiated-access mobility regime the scaling distributes

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

• Towers in the Park, Bungalows in the Garden (Keil 2015) — the concept's founding source: the Schafran et al. quotation (p. 590); the Tieboutian-jump circuit (p. 590); mobility-differentiated access (p. 591)

Source Support linking rule: All entries in this section must be wikilinks to source note pages in wiki/source-notes/ using the source-notes/ path prefix. Never link to raw files — raw files are not wiki pages.

Open Questions

• The strategy is defined against scale jumping's "rescaling imposed from above" — but the article notes exurban social movements' success depends on shifting "discourses and technologies of mobility" that are themselves unevenly distributed (p. 591). Is scalar promiscuity available to the powerless, or only to those already multiply engaged?
• What is the Tieboutian scale's design-disciplinary meaning — once households no longer sort themselves into municipalities by preference bundle ("voting with feet"), which spatial orientations become possible for designers?
• Scalar promiscuity is a movement strategy; is there a scalar promiscuity of design — practices engaging house, street, neighbourhood, region and world simultaneously rather than at one scale?