The purpose of this article is to propose a new theorisation of “scale” in doing earthly politics (i.e. who is acting, who should be responsible for addressing planetary environmental degradation). I connect the politics of scale in global urban politics with the scale question in environmental politics. While the existing paradigm on “politics of scale” have made an excellent contribution on performative aspects of scale, they have failed to respond to the affirmative movements in which scholars and policy makers attempt to theorise scales as ranges in which political action can be mobilised. On the other hand, the new “down-to-earth” affirmative ecopolitics movement often fails to move beyond the romanticisation of the local, which is easily subject to criticisms, such as “local trap” where the small is not always intrinsically “good”. As an alternative, I theorise “scales of political action” that can be simultaneously both materially situated (local) and ubiquitous (global), mainly using Gaian ecology and complex theory. Finally, as a concrete example of “scales of political action”, I propose cities as frontiers of doing earthly politics, focusing on the characteristics of urban conditions that match our new theorisation of scale.

中文翻译：

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人类世政治行动的尺度：作为地球政治前沿的盖亚、网络和城市

本文的目的是提出一种新的地球政治“规模”理论（即谁在行动，谁应该负责解决地球环境退化问题）。我将全球城市政治中的规模政治与环境政治中的规模问题联系起来。虽然现有的“规模政治”范式在规模的表现方面做出了出色的贡献，但它们未能回应学者和政策制定者试图将规模理论化为可以动员政治行动的范围的平权运动。另一方面，新的“脚踏实地”的平权生态政治运动往往未能超越对地方的浪漫化，这很容易受到批评，例如“地方陷阱”，其中小并不总是本质上“好” ”。作为替代方案，我主要使用盖安生态学和复杂理论来理论化“政治行动的尺度”，它可以同时处于物质位置（本地）和无处不在（全球）。最后，作为“政治行动的尺度”的一个具体例子，我建议将城市作为进行地球政治的前沿，重点关注与我们新的尺度理论相匹配的城市条件特征。