000			02105nam a2200193Ia 4500
001			4916
008			250217s9999 xx 000 0 und d
020			_a9780300078152
100			_aScott, James C. _97089
245		0	_aSeeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed/ _cJames C. Scott
260			_bYale University Press; _c1998
300			_a445p; _c21x13cm
520			_aCompulsory 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.
546			_aEnglish
650			_aNA9000-9428 Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying _92889
650			_aState housing _97090
650			_aUrban planning _91710
942			_cBK
999			_c4916 _d4916