Seeing like a state
Subtitle: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed
By: James C. Scott.
Series: Yale agrarian studies
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New Haven, USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 445
Copyright date: 1998
Subjects: Central planning -- Social aspects; Social engineering; Authoritarianism
First sentence: Certain forms of knowledge and control require a narrowing of vision.
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 359-434) and index.
Table of contents: title: Acknowledgments
pagenum: ix; title: Introduction
pagenum: 1; label: Part 1
title: State Projects of Legibility and Simplification
pagenum: 9; label: 1
title: Nature and Space
pagenum: 11; label: 2
title: Cities, People, and Language
pagenum: 53; label: Part 2
title: Transforming Visions
pagenum: 85; label: 3
title: Authoritarian High Modernism
pagenum: 87; label: 4
title: The High-Modernist City:  An Experiment and a Critique
pagenum: 103; label: 5
title: The Revolutionary Party: A Plan and a Diagnosis
pagenum: 147; label: Part 3
title: The Social Engineering of Rural Settlement and Production
pagenum: 181; label: 6
title: Soviet Collectivization, Capitalist Dreams
pagenum: 193; label: 7
title: Compulsory Villagization in Tanzania:  Aesthetics and Miniaturization
pagenum: 223; label: 8
title: Taming Nature: An Agricultyure of Legibility and Simplicity
pagenum: 262; label: Part 4
title: The Missing Link
pagenum: 307; label: 9
title: Thin Simplifications and Practical Knowledge: Metis
pagenum: 309; label: 10
title: Conclusion
pagenum: 342; title: Notes
pagenum: 359; title: Sources for Illustrations
pagenum: 433; title: Index
pagenum: 435