#### : How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed `Author:` [[James C. Scott]] `Availability:` ## Summary In _Seeing Like a State_, James C. Scott examines why many large-scale, state-led projects of social engineering — often launched with utopian aims — end in failure, oppression, or disaster. His central argument is that such schemes fail because they are based on a **“high-modernist [[Ideology|ideology]]”**: the belief that [[Society]] can be rationally ordered and improved through scientific planning, measurement, and [[Control]]. Scott contends that modern states seek to make society **“legible”** — that is, to simplify complex local realities into uniform systems that can be recorded, taxed, and administered. Examples include the standardisation of surnames, cadastral maps, land titles, metric measurements, and urban grids. While legibility enhances state power, it often destroys the **local knowledge** (_mētis_) — the informal, adaptive know-how embedded in communities. When high-modernist planning combines with authoritarian power, weak civil society, and a disregard for practical experience, the result is what Scott calls **“authoritarian high modernism.”** This combination produces catastrophic outcomes, such as collectivised [[Agriculture]] in the Soviet Union, compulsory villagisation in Tanzania, or the “scientific” redesign of cities like Brasília. --- ### **Key Concepts** - **Legibility:** The process by which states simplify and standardise social life to make it administratively visible and controllable. - **Mētis:** Practical, local, experiential knowledge that resists codification but sustains everyday life. - **High Modernism:** The ideology of total rational design — faith in human reason, technology, and progress to remake society. - **Authoritarianism + High Modernism = Disaster:** Large-scale planning without feedback from lived experience leads to rigidity, inefficiency, and human suffering. --- ### **Themes** - The tension between **local complexity** and **[[bureaucratic]] simplification**. - The dangers of imposing order from above rather than cultivating it from below. - The enduring importance of **pluralism, adaptability, and humility** in governance and design. --- ### **Significance** _Seeing Like a State_ is a critique of modern rationalism in practice — from agriculture and urban planning to science and development policy. Scott offers an alternative ethic of **pragmatism and respect for local knowledge**, making the book essential reading for understanding the limits of centralised power and the value of lived experience. --- ## Key Takeaways ## Quotes - ## Notes  > [!info] > ![[SeeingLikeAState246759.webp]] `Concepts:` `Knowledge Base:` [[Books index]]