Seeing like a state : how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed / James C. Scott [Book].

By:

Scott, James C

Material type: Text

TextSeries: The Yale ISPS series | Yale agrarian studiesPublication details: 1998. Yale University Press, New Haven :Description: xiv, 445 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cmISBN:

9780300078152 (pbk.)

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

23 338.9 SCO 000766

Online resources:

Table of contents

Contents:

Pt. 1. State Projects of Legibility and Simplification. Ch. 1. Nature and Space. Ch. 2. Cities, People, and Language Pt. 2. Transforming Visions. Ch. 3. Authoritarian High Modernism. Ch. 4. The High-Modernist City: An Experiment and a Critique. Ch. 5. The Revolutionary Party: A Plan and a Diagnosis Pt. 3. The Social Engineering of Rural Settlement and Production. Ch. 6. Soviet Collectivization, Capitalist Dreams. Ch. 7. Compulsory Villagization in Tanzania: Aesthetics and Miniaturization. Ch. 8. Taming Nature: An Agriculture of Legibility and Simplicity Pt. 4. The Missing Link. Ch. 9. Thin Simplifications and Practical Knowledge: Metis. Ch. 10. Conclusion.

Summary: In this wide-ranging and original book, James C. Scott analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields. He argues that centrally managed social plans derail when they impose schematic visions that do violence to complex interdependencies that are not - and cannot be - fully understood. Further the success of designs for social organization depends on the recognition that local, practical knowledge is as important as formal, epistemic knowledge. The author builds a persuasive case against "development theory" and imperialistic state planning that disregards the values, desires, and objections of its subjects. And in discussing these planning disasters, he identifies four conditions common to them all: the state's attempt to impose administrative order on nature and society; a high-modernist ideology that believes scientific intervention can improve every aspect of human life; a willingness to use authoritarian state power to effect large-scale innovations; and a prostrate civil society that cannot effectively resist such plans.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	Indian Institute for Human Settlements, New Delhi	338.9 SCO 017419 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	In transit from Indian Institute for Human Settlements, New Delhi to Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bangalore since 12/01/2024		017419
Book	Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bangalore	338.9 SCO 000766 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Checked out	16/10/2024	000766

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Previous	338.9 RIS 012209 The history of development :	338.9 ROD 000938 One economics, many recipes :	338.9 SAC 002558 Common wealth :	338.9 SCO 000766 Seeing like a state :	338.9 SCO 017419 Seeing like a state :	338.9 SEN 001470 Development as freedom /	338.9 SEN 017028 Readings in human development :	Next

Includes bibliographical references (p. 359-434) and index.

Pt. 1. State Projects of Legibility and Simplification. Ch. 1. Nature and Space. Ch. 2. Cities, People, and Language
Pt. 2. Transforming Visions. Ch. 3. Authoritarian High Modernism. Ch. 4. The High-Modernist City: An Experiment and a Critique. Ch. 5. The Revolutionary Party: A Plan and a Diagnosis
Pt. 3. The Social Engineering of Rural Settlement and Production. Ch. 6. Soviet Collectivization, Capitalist Dreams. Ch. 7. Compulsory Villagization in Tanzania: Aesthetics and Miniaturization. Ch. 8. Taming Nature: An Agriculture of Legibility and Simplicity
Pt. 4. The Missing Link. Ch. 9. Thin Simplifications and Practical Knowledge: Metis. Ch. 10. Conclusion.

In this wide-ranging and original book, James C. Scott analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields. He argues that centrally managed social plans derail when they impose schematic visions that do violence to complex interdependencies that are not - and cannot be - fully understood. Further the success of designs for social organization depends on the recognition that local, practical knowledge is as important as formal, epistemic knowledge.
The author builds a persuasive case against "development theory" and imperialistic state planning that disregards the values, desires, and objections of its subjects. And in discussing these planning disasters, he identifies four conditions common to them all: the state's attempt to impose administrative order on nature and society; a high-modernist ideology that believes scientific intervention can improve every aspect of human life; a willingness to use authoritarian state power to effect large-scale innovations; and a prostrate civil society that cannot effectively resist such plans.

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