TSG The scales of Geography

Bridges between the concepts of cartographic scale and geographical scale

Abstract

In Geography, the understanding and use of the concepts of cartographic scale and geographic scale help to define scientific research. Starting from classic texts that deal with the subject, the objective is to verify the relevance of the criticisms to the cartographic scale and its opposition to a concept of a “truly” geographical scale, in addition to presenting an contribution to this problem, with the definition of differences, similarities, limits and possibilities of each concept. Thus, the stages of this research consisted of exploratory bibliographic research of articles and books, on digital bases of free access on the Internet, anchored in the technique of retrospective investigation, from a reference work (CASTRO, 1995). This analysis results in the idea that there is still a conceptual uncertainty as to the geographical scale, hence the adoption or, sometimes, confusion with the cartographic scale. It also highlights the lack of understanding of the scope of cartography as a language, taking the map only by the limits imposed by its scale, and underestimating its real possibilities of contribution to geographic analysis.