Upcoming Workshop: Unpacking the Heuristics and Methodologies of Scale

23 – 24 February 2026 | The University of Bristol

The Infracursions project at the University of Bristol will be hosting a two-day interdisciplinary workshop about the epistemologies and practices of scale, with a keynote talks from Michael Lempert, anthropologist at the University of Michigan, and Karen Seto, geographer at Yale University.

As contemporary social worlds become increasingly interconnected yet fragmented, and as we see an increased rationalisation or legitimisation of “scaling up”, understanding who benefits from certain scalar arrangements, and what forms of power and exclusion they produce is becoming ever more crucial. Yet, despite ongoing theoretical interventions, various disciplines continue to grapple with entrenched scalar binaries – between micro and macro, local and global, grassroots and quantitative, or individual agency and structural forces.  

Rather than treating scale as a stable analytic category, this workshop invites participants to explore how scales are actively made, institutionalized, and contested across different domains of social life and disciplinary practice.

 

Keynote addresses from:

Michael Lempert

Michael Lempert is a linguistic and cultural anthropologist.  He is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan and was formerly Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University. He has been a Richard and Lillian Ives Faculty Fellow at Michigan’s Institute for the Humanities, a Lenore Annenberg and Wallis Annenberg Fellow in Communication at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (CASBS), and a visiting professor at l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris. Lempert is author of Discipline and Debate: The Language of Violence in a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery (2012), coauthor (with Michael Silverstein) of Creatures of Politics: Media, Message, and the American Presidency (2012), and coeditor (with E. Summerson Carr) of Scale: Discourse and Dimensions of Social Life (2016). His latest book, From Small Talk to Microaggression: A History of Scale (2024), is out through The University of Chicago Press. 

Karen Seto

Karen Seto is the Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at the Yale School of the Environment. She is one of the world’s leading experts on urbanization and its effects on the planet, including climate change, biodiversity, and food systems. A geographer and urbanization scientist, she integrates remote sensing, field interviews, and modeling methods to focus on four research themes: 1) measuring and characterizing urbanization; 2) modeling and understanding the drivers of urban expansion; 3) forecasting urban expansion; and 4) assessing the environmental consequences of urbanization. She is chair of the Policy and Global Affairs Division of the U.S. National Academies and co-chair of the U.S. National Academies Climate Security Roundtable. She was the Coordinating Lead Author for two UN climate change reports, the IPCC 5th (2014) and 6th (2022) Assessment Reports. Her book, City Unseen, co-authored with Meredith Reba (YSE MEM ’14), uses satellite imagery to show how cities shape landscapes and how landscapes shape cities

Call for Abstracts

During the event, participants will present short papers in thematic panels followed by a Q&A.

We encourage contributions that engage in interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to push the analysis of scale beyond its familiar tensions and toward new conceptual and methodological horizons.

We invite papers that reflect on the following themes/questions:

Scalar regimes and scale-making:  

• How do different scales interact and shape each other, and how are these scales socially constructed and contested?  
• What happens when people challenge dominant scalar logics? How do social movements, indigenous groups, and other actors produce counter-scalar projects?  

The politics of scale:  

• What political and policy implication emerge when categories of scale are deployed (e.g. small-scale societies, large-scale extraction)?  
• How do scalar distinctions shape policy, governance, and economic decision-making?  

Scalar Pragmatics:  

• What alternative scalar perspectives might help us rethink social, political, and economic structures?  
• How can multi-scalar governance frameworks help us to better tackle contemporary global issues?  

Rethinking methodologies of scale:  

• How can we engage in radical interdisciplinary practices that integrate multiple scalar practices and ways of knowing without subordinating one to another?  
• How does the rhetoric of “capturing the general” through quantification shape the authority of different knowledge systems?  

How could your research fit? Most people work on scale in some form. To give you some examples of the kinds of real research themes that could be relevant, beyond abstract questions like those above, consider these:

• “The challenges of integrating large-scale datasets and deep/ethnographic analyses” 

• “Rethinking space and frontiers in transnational migration” 

• “Global commodity chains and its actors on the ground” 

• “The effects of AI/big data on political projects” 

• “Archaeological knowledge and the politics of temporal scales”  

• “Using community-led sustainability programs to inform national or international climate justice policy” 

• “Scaling up sustainable energy solutions to meet global demands” 

• “The role of spatial explicit model in agricultural governance policy implementation” 

• “Navigating the relationship between viruses and planetary health” 

• “Multi-scalar perspectives on biodiversity loss” 

We welcome abstracts (250-300 words) from any field that speak to any of the key themes mentioned above. Please send your abstract and a short bio to the following email: infracursions-project@bristol.ac.uk. 

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This will be an in-person event and will take place at the University of Bristol, UK on 23-24 February 2026.

Limited funds are available to support transport and/or accommodation costs for researchers on precarious contracts. If you would like to be considered, please indicate in your communication with us, including a justification. 

We will do our best to meet any requirements that will allow you to fully participate in this event. Please let us know in advance if you have any specific requirements or any access needs by contacting infracursions-project@bristol.ac.uk.   

Organisers: 

Amy Penfield (University of Bristol) 

Natalia Valdivieso Kastner (University of Bristol) 

Rayane Pacheco (University of Bristol) 

Margherita Scazza (University of Bristol)

Pedro Silva Rocha Lima (University of Bristol)

Alice Cross (University of Bristol)