ABSTRACT
In this chapter scales are seen as particular space–time configurations produced and mobilized by communities of active scale-makers. The use of scaling is linked directly to ideological and political positions, which make it possible to talk about the politics of scales. Thus, scale-making is an inherent and important activity in the structuring of the sustainability discourse, and the mobilization of morality and political identities. The concept of sustainability is deeply entangled in power relations and thus frame the way the social world is scaled and politicized. The chapter investigates how particular understandings of the social world in sustainability discourses carve out the political manoeuvring rooms, social categories, and the subject positions of people. The chapter focuses on processes initiated by the Greenlandic authorities, which have put forward a comprehensive political strategy to transform society by inviting in large-scale industries. Following this initiative, a rethinking of the Greenlandic society took place. In this process, different configurations of the social world have been used strategically and have become centre-stage in debates about how to construct a ‘new’ sustainable society. The chapter analyses how the production of project phases of large-scale industrial development organize what is perceived to constitute the social world.
