Ecological restoration is widely promoted as a scalable response to climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation. Yet many technically feasible initiatives do not expand beyond pilot sites or endure after external support ends. This conceptual analysis examines how localized configurations of norms, authority, identity, hierarchy, and tenure shape restoration legitimacy and restoration scaling. We define a socio-cultural microcosm as an intervention-specific configuration of these dimensions that filters who may authorize ecological change, how costs and benefits are distributed, and whether an intervention fits local meanings and livelihood systems. A structured comparative synthesis of 12 case studies from Africa and South Asia identifies five recurrent dimensions: sacred governance, gender norms, livelihood identities, social hierarchies, and customary tenure. It is observed that these dimensions often act jointly. For example, gender exclusion has different scaling effects when combined with insecure tree tenure in the Sahel than when combined with formal participation rules and committee hierarchies in Nepal. The concept differs from the social-ecological systems framework, institutional bricolage, and dynamic sustainabilities by focusing specifically on the local configuration that converts an otherwise feasible restoration intervention into adoption, adaptation, selective compliance, resistance, or durable stewardship. The paper concludes with a diagnostic framework for restoration planners. Restoration scaling should therefore be treated as repeated institutional alignment across places, not as the replication of a technical package only.