Scale(s)
A comprehensive multiscale assessment is a process that incorporates at least two complete, nested, and interacting assessments, each with a distinct user group, problem definition, and expert group. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: The multiscale approach (Chapter 4, page 63), 2003
Central authorities (national and corporate) give the view from 40,000 feet, or the "view from nowhere". This was all that could be done it was costly to collect, assess, and broadcast information. Once information technology made that cheap and easy, places--say US Counties could broadcast "views from somewhere" or "where the rubber meets the road". Few would deny that both views are important but, if each level is parsimonious in assessment and broadcasting, they send disparate signals to prospective transactional partners. Rather than deny either or conflate the two, OconEco recommends defining a task in two (or more) workspaces at different points on the continuum of macro-, meso-, and micro-scales.
Stakeholders may enter at either scale. However, all are expected to navigate to the other to recognize and value the conjoint set of constructs. This often reveals consensus about scale difference in valuations of Who & What M-LA recognizes matter to the task--either in general or because the task concerns an outlier at the finer scale, relative to the coarser scale. This is a crucial step in consilience, or agree how to allocate resources 'where the rubber hits the road."