Nonscalability

Description

Vasilis Kostakis, Lucas Lemo, and Asimina Kouvara:

"Anna Tsing’s theory of nonscalability serves as a powerful critique of capitalist ideas about progress and growth, shedding light on the consequences of scalability. In her seminal article “On Nonscalability” (2012), Tsing argues that the modern world has been shaped by scalability projects – initiatives aimed at expanding and replicating supposedly successful models without making necessary transformations. These projects, which range from plantation agriculture to industrial manufacturing, rely on standardisation and often lead to the erasure of diversity.

Tsing emphasises the importance of “meaningful” biological and cultural diversity, which can inhibit scalability by requiring projects to adapt to different contexts. In contrast, scalability projects strive to create controllable and frictionless environments for expansion, reducing the intricate complexity of our world to what Tsing calls “nonsoels” – nonsocial landscape elements treated as interchangeable units. Nonsoels are intentionally stripped of their social and ecological connections, designed to function as uniform, self-contained components within a scalable system. Examples of nonsoels include sugarcane clones on plantations, standardised labor units in factories, and even pixels in digital images. By creating these artificial and isolated units, scalability projects aim to eliminate the complexity of real-world interactions.

However, Tsing argues that this process of creating nonsoels is never truly complete, often overlooking or suppressing diversity and relationships that resist such simplification. Such scalability, she posits, is ultimately a seductive fantasy. In all its glorious messiness, diversity, and unpredictability, the real world resists frictionless scaling. Nonscalable elements – ecological, social, or economic – invariably disrupt attempts at seamless expansion. As Tsing puts it, “scalability is not an ordinary feature of nature. Making projects scalable takes a lot of work” (Tsing 2012, 505). This work, she reveals, often involves violence, exploitation, and the erasure of local complexities, painting a stark picture of the true cost of our relentless pursuit of growth.

Tsing’s insights provide a compelling explanation for why capitalist scale-at-all-costs models are fundamentally unsustainable (Pfotenhauer et al. 2022). The fixation on scalability damages ecosystems, creates precarity, and is incompatible with the heterogeneous, interdependent nature of life on Earth. Adaptations in living systems proliferate not through deliberate promotion, but because they enhance the survival and well-being of species and their communities. When these adaptations lose their usefulness and become maladaptive, they either fade away or are discarded (Loring 2023). Tsing illustrates this through various examples, including the contrast between sugarcane plantations (an icon of scalability) and matsutake mushrooms (which resist scalable production). She argues for a nonscalability theory that accounts for the complex, transformative relationships scalability projects often ignore or suppress.

Tsing’s work also challenges us to rethink our approach to knowledge itself. She points out that much of modern science demands scalability in its research frameworks, potentially obscuring the diversity pertaining to different ways of knowing and living. What seems scalable for scientific, technical, or economic reasons can differ greatly across regions, cultures, and legal boundaries (Pfotenhauer et al. 2022). By recognising the limitations and costs of scalability, we can develop more nuanced, context-sensitive approaches to understanding and interacting with our world.

Yet, as we stand on the precipice of mounting ecological and social crises, a question lingers: Could we reimagine scalability in more sustainable and inclusive ways? Is it possible to spread and replicate positive models without falling into the traps of capitalist scalability projects? This essay argues that an alternative form of scalability is indeed possible and already emerging – a concept we might call “cosmolocal scalability”, offering a glimmer of hope in an increasingly complex world."

(https://triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/download/1535/1612?inline=1)