As we have seen, the `world region' or `area' is a relatively new scale, at least as
a spatial representation that is imagined to be a component of a continuous grid
spanning the globe. It is also a contested one. The constructionist approach to scale
outlined above can help in studying more systematically what geometries of power
went into the `rescaling' that produced the configuration of area studies after World
War 2. At the same time, this endeavour may help to broaden the theory of
geographical scale in three ways.