| Description |
xiv, 445 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm |
| Series |
The Yale ISPS series |
|
Yale ISPS series.
|
| Contents |
pt. 1. State projects of legibility and simplification -- pt. 2. Transforming visions -- pt. 3. The social engineering of rural settlement and production -- pt. 4. The missing link |
| Summary |
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 |
|
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 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 359-434) and index |
| Subject |
Authoritarianism.
|
|
Central planning -- Social aspects.
|
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Central planning.
|
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Economic development -- Social aspects.
|
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Social engineering.
|
| LC no. |
97026556 |
| ISBN |
0300070160 (alk. paper) |
|
0300078153 (paperback) |
|
