ABSTRACT

In the face of climate destabilizations and breakdowns, debates about (de)growth and scale have been particularly significant within critical scholarship. These debates counterpose radically different political positionings, with implications for how the planetary future is envisioned. Must societies build their way out of climate change’s existential threat via massive new investments in techno-infrastructural (re)development? Or are these visions fatally flawed, requiring altogether different programs of degrowth, techno-skeptical reimagination, and decentralization? We argue that disputes about scale and “descaling” for climate action require a better theory of the urban, especially in relation to density and processes of densification. We must trouble both the (over)sell of urban density and eco-efficiencies as a response to climate change, while also pushing against the persistent anti-urbanism in much thinking around descaling, decentralization, and relocalization. Ultimately, we argue that disputes about scale within climate action need more thorough grounding in actually existing geographies and their politics.

摘要

面对气候不稳定和崩溃，在批判性学术研究中，关于（增长）和规模的争论尤为重要。这些辩论提出了截然不同的政治立场，对如何构想地球的未来产生了影响。社会是否必须通过对技术基础设施（再开发）进行大规模的新投资来摆脱气候变化的生存威胁？还是这些愿景存在致命缺陷，需要完全不同的程序来进行退化，对技术表示怀疑的重新想象和去中心化？我们认为，关于气候行动规模和“除垢”的争论需要对城市有更好的理论，特别是在密度和致密化过程方面。为了应对气候变化，我们必须在城市密度（过度）销售和生态效率方面都遇到麻烦，同时在围绕除垢，分权和重新定位的许多思考中反对持久的反城市主义。最终，我们认为气候行动范围内的规模之争需要在实际存在的地理区域及其政治基础上有更全面的基础。