183 Geopolitics, 12:183–191, 2007 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1465-0045 print / 1557-3028 online DOI: 10.1080/14650040601031271 FGEO 1465-0045 1557-3028 Geopolitics, Vol. 12, No. 1, November 2006: pp. 1–15 Geopolitics Discussion: Response I Geopolitical Knowledge: Scale, Method and the “Willie Sutton Syndrome” Scale, Method and the “Willie Sutton Syndrome” Simon Dalby SIMON DALBY Department of Geography, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Reporter: “Why do you rob banks?” Willie Sutton: “Because that’s where the money is.” 1 IN SEARCH OF SCALE Scale is it seems an essential geographical concept these days, one that, as Diehl and O’Lear make clear, means many things. Hence while it seems unavoidable in discussions of political geography it also begs many ques- tions about other related terms and their analytical possibilities. But of most importance scale seems to focus attention on how social phenomena are contextualised, how their location and connections structure possibilities, and in the case of human geographies, how actor identities are constituted in particular places. The critical literature on scale points to the importance of the production of scale as the focus for research. 2 As such the question for environment and conflict research is how scale has been constructed in this field; or as Diehl and O’Lear suggest rather pointedly, how it has not. Diehl and O’Lear go on to point to scale’s numerous meanings and document in some detail the case for taking this matter seriously in scholar- ship relating to resource conflicts. But the difficulty is precisely one of the lack of precision in the use of the term. When linked to the numerous facets that are necessary to understand a case of conflict related to a resource, as O’Lear and Diehl do in their heuristic example of the diamond mine, then scale comes close to being a synonym for the term ‘geography’, at least Address correspondence to Simon Dalby, Department of Geography, Carleton Univer- sity, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. E-mail: sdalby@connect.carleton.ca