James C. Scott
The Arts of Resistance
James C. Scott wrote “Weapons of the Weak” (1985) and “Seeing like a State” (1998), which have been widely influential (cited over 10,000 times each), and each are covered in earlier posts. Scott’s 1990 book “Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts” has similar been widely read and referenced (also over 10,000 citations) and […]
Tags: #Domination and the Arts of Resistance #Hidden Transcripts #Infrapolitics #James C. Scott #Power
Seeing Like A State – Prescribing Society
Thought provoking quotes from Scott’s (1998) Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed. The rationale: “The publicly stated rationale for planned settlement schemes was almost always couched in the discourse of orderly development and social services (such as the provision of health clinics, sanitation, adequate housing, education, clean […]
Tags: #Development #International development #James C. Scott #Prescribing Society #Seeing Like a State
Seeing Like A State – Describing Society
Thought provoking quotes from Scott’s (1998) Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed. On simplification: “… state simplifications, the basic givens of modern statecraft, were, I began to realize, rather like abridged maps. They did not successfully represent the actual activity of the society they depicted, nor were […]
Tags: #Describing Society #James C. Scott #Legibility #Seeing Like a State #Simplification
Revisiting Scott’s (1985) Weapons of the Weak
On ‘weapons of the weak’: “Here I have in mind the ordinary weapons of relatively powerless groups: foot dragging, dissimulation, false compliance, pilfering, feigned ignorance, slander, arson, sabotage and so forth. These Brechtian forms of class struggle have certain features in common. They require little or no coordination or planning; they often represent a form […]
Tags: #Capitalism #Creation of Custom #James C. Scott #Marxist Revolution #Weapons of the weak
About me
Logan Cochrane
Associate Professor at HBKU in the College of Public Policy. He is an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). Over the last fifteen years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Logan acts as a consultant for governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, seeking to create bridges between research and practice.
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