James C. Scott | Books & Literature » Non-Fiction
Seeing Like a State
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A book that starts with an extended discussion of 18th century European forestry before delving into how states develop methods to make their domains 'legible' to central managers, often at the expense of local knowledge and practice. It critiques the approach of imposing simplified models for management and its consequences.
A book by James C. Scott that discusses how states must develop means to make their domains 'legible' to manage resources, run bureaucracies, and tax citizens effectively. The book dives into the consequences of these efforts, such as the imposition of harmful monocultures, through examples like 18th-century Prussian forestry and 17th-century French cadastral mapping.
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott is a wide-ranging and original book that analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields. It argues that centrally managed social plans misfire when they impose schematic visions that do violence to complex interdependencies that are not—and cannot—be fully understood. The success of designs for social organization depends upon the recognition that local, practical knowledge is as important as formal, epistemic knowledge. The book discusses four conditions common to all planning disasters and identifies and critiques 'development theory' and imperialistic state planning that disregards the values, desires, and objections of its subjects.
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