A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

‘‘Generality of mis-fit’’? The real-life difficulty of matching scales in an interconnected world




AuthorsE. Carina H. Keskitalo, Tim Horstkotte, Sonja Kivinen, Bruce Forbes, Jukka Käyhkö

PublisherSpringer Netherlands

Publication year2016

JournalAMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment

Volume45

Issue6

First page 742

Last page752

Number of pages11

ISSN0044-7447

eISSN1654-7209

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-015-0757-2(external)

Web address http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-015-0757-2(external)


Abstract

A clear understanding of processes at multiple scales and levels is of special significance when conceiving strategies for human–environment interactions. However, understanding and application of the scale concept often differ between administrative-political and ecological disciplines. These mirror major differences in potential solutions whether and how scales can, at all, be made congruent. As a result, opportunities of seeking ‘‘goodness-of-fit’’ between different concepts of governance should perhaps be reconsidered in the light of a potential

‘‘generality of mis-fit.’’ This article reviews the interdisciplinary considerations inherent in the concept of scale in its ecological, as well as administrative-political, significance and argues that issues of how to manage ‘‘misfit’’ should be awarded more emphasis in social-ecological

research and management practices. These considerations are exemplified by the case of reindeer husbandry in Fennoscandia. Whilst an indigenous small-scale practice, reindeer husbandry involves multi-level ecological and administrative-political complexities—complexities thatwe argue may arise in any multi-level system.

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