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Product Identifiers

PublisherYale University Press

ISBN-100300078153

ISBN-139780300078152

eBay Product ID (ePID)1062533

Product Key Features

Number of Pages464 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameSeeing like a State : How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

Publication Year1999

SubjectSociology / General, History & Theory, Imperialism, Human Services, General, Public Policy / Economic Policy, World

TypeTextbook

AuthorJames C. Scott

Subject AreaPolitical Science, Social Science, History

SeriesThe Institution for Social and Policy Studies

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.1 in

Item Weight22.4 Oz

Item Length0.9 in

Item Width0.6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

Dewey Edition21

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal338.9

SynopsisCompulsory ujamaa villages in Tanzania, collectivization in Russia, Le Corbusier's urban planning theory realized in Brasilia, the Great Leap Forward in China, agricultural "modernization" in the Tropics--the twentieth century has been racked by grand utopian schemes that have inadvertently brought death and disruption to millions. Why do well-intentioned plans for improving the human condition go tragically awry? In this wide-ranging and original book, James C. Scott analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields. Centrally managed social plans misfire, Scott argues, 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 upon 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. He identifies and discusses four conditions common to all planning disasters: administrative ordering of nature and society by the state; a "high-modernist ideology" that places confidence in the ability of science to improve every aspect of human life; a willingness to use authoritarian state power to effect large- scale interventions; and a prostrate civil society that cannot effectively resist such plans., "Illuminating and beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit."-- New Yorker "A magisterial critique of top-down social planning."--Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times "One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades."--John Gray, New York Times Book Review Compulsory ujamaa villages in Tanzania, collectivization in Russia, Le Corbusier's urban planning theory realized in Brasília, the Great Leap Forward in China, agricultural "modernization" in the Tropics--the twentieth century has been racked by grand utopian schemes that have inadvertently brought death and disruption to millions. Why do well-intentioned plans for improving the human condition go tragically awry? In this wide-ranging and original book, James C. Scott analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields. Centrally managed social plans misfire, Scott argues, 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 upon 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. He identifies and discusses four conditions common to all planning disasters: administrative ordering of nature and society by the state; a "high-modernist ideology" that places confidence in the ability of science to improve every aspect of human life; a willingness to use authoritarian state power to effect large- scale interventions; and a prostrate civil society that cannot effectively resist such plans.

LC Classification NumberHD87.5.S365 1998