2.1 has no nested scopes. Please don't do that: def listGroupRequest(self, group): sql = """ SELECT postings.article_index FROM postings,groups WHERE postings.group_id = groups.group_id AND groups.name = '%s' """ % (adbapi.safe(group),) return self.runQuery(sql).addCallback( lambda results: (group, [res[0] for res in results]) )