{"product_id":"seeing-like-a-state-how-certain-schemes-to-improve-the-human-condition-have-failed-9780300078152","title":"Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"Illuminating and beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.\"--\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A magisterial critique of top-down social planning.\"--Jennifer Schuessler, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.\"--John Gray, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Compulsory \u003ci\u003eujamaa\u003c\/i\u003e 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? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJames C. Scott\u003c\/b\u003e (1936-2024) was Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology Emeritus at Yale University. His many books include \u003ci\u003eThe Art of Not Being Governed\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDomination and the Arts of Resistance\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eAgainst the Grain\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Yale University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51805521740050,"sku":"9780300078152","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_384bff36-a959-481e-b812-7739ddab9377.jpg?v=1765973373","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/seeing-like-a-state-how-certain-schemes-to-improve-the-human-condition-have-failed-9780300078152","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}