{"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":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): James C. Scott\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Yale University Press\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Yale University Press\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Sociology - General\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\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 \u003c\/p\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.","brand":"Yale University Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47892398801047,"sku":"9780300078152","price":2906.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780300078152.webp?v=1781186810","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/seeing-like-a-state-how-certain-schemes-to-improve-the-human-condition-have-failed-9780300078152","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}