Seeing like a state

how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed

by

445 pages

English language

Published Nov. 13, 1998 by Yale University Press.

ISBN:
978-0-300-07016-3
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4 stars (3 reviews)

Examines how (sometimes quasi-) authoritarian central planning fails to deliver the goods, be they increased resources for the state or a better life for the people.

8 editions

reviewed Seeing like a state by James C. Scott (Yale agrarian studies)

legibility, high modernism, metis

4 stars

I enjoyed this greatly and I am dyingggg to know about criticisms of big tech and surveillance capitalism that utilize the concepts in this book—particularly around legibility and the mechanization of people/minds. If you see this and you know of any, plz share! Such a good read for those of us in the interstitial spaces between the provably known and the experientially felt, and for those thinking about the pain and problems of objectivity.

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4 stars
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5 stars

Subjects

  • Central planning -- Social aspects
  • Social engineering
  • Authoritarianism