As the above quotation by the political geographer Adam Moore describes, scale is fundamental to interpreting and ordering social life. This chapter argues that recognising the role of scale in this manner has been almost entirely absent in the field of policy studies, and that this overlooks an essential dimension of policymaking practices.

The first section of the chapter shows how the concept of scale is fundamental to how policy scholars have approached making sense of the actors, processes and structures shaping policy, but that this involves scale being used descriptively rather than its political dimensions being recognised. The second section illustrates the possibilities for a more critical approach to scale by reviewing the political geography debates on scale. In particular, the poststructuralist political geography literature on scale which conceptualises scale as a social practice is considered to hold the greatest potential for enriching the study of policy. The chapter's third section then turns to identifying how a poststructuralist approach to scale is highly compatible with the broad literature on ‘critical policy studies’. Despite critical policy studies scholars advancing powerful critiques of positivist political science and promoting an engagement with the multiple meanings and practices of policymaking, the discussion shows that the meanings and practices of scale remain under-conceptualised and under-studied.

Having established the lack of engagement with the political dimensions of scale in policy studies, the chapter's final sections introduce the concept of ‘scalecraft’ as a hegemonic practice and strategy of policymaking that reflects how meanings of policy are co-constituted by the metaphors and language of scale. The chapter concludes by outlining how scalecraft is explored through a lens that integrates poststructuralist political geography with political discourse theory, and which draws on the ‘logics of critical explanation’ approach (Glynos and Howarth, 2007).

Assumptions of scale in the study of policy

The field of ‘policy studies’ is an area of study which is characterised by significant diversity and plurality. It ranges from traditional, technocratic policy analysis which focuses on processes such as different stages of the policy cycle, to discursive approaches to policy studies that include drawing on interpretive and practice-based theories (Fischer et al, 2006).