Скачать или смотреть Everyday Resistance & Local Power: Exploring James C. Scott with Mike Rowe

Seeing Like a State:How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

https://munisquare.substack.com/p/eve...

In this episode of the Munisquare Podcast, Nancy Hess welcomes Mike Rowe, Lecturer in Public Administration at the University of Liverpool, to explore the provocative ideas of James C. Scott. Focusing on his seminal work Seeing Like a State, they unpack what Scott's theories mean for today’s local government leaders.

The conversation journeys through key concepts:

Everyday Forms of Resistance - The quiet ways people push back against authority, from food trucks parking just outside restricted zones to communities creating workarounds when regulations don't make sense.

Legibility - How governments make society "readable" through cadastral mapping, standardized measurements, and fixed boundaries to count, tax, and regulate citizens.

Simplification - The urge to tame complex systems with science and technology, often losing crucial local knowledge in the process.

High Modernism - Those utopian top-down ambitions that take legibility and simplification to extremes, exemplified by the creation of Brasília.

Whether you're a manager navigating policy implementation or an academic exploring governance theory, this episode offers accessible, practical reflections on Scott’s work—plus a few new ways to think about public service.

Time Stamps with Descriptions
00:00 - 03:00 - Introduction and Context
Nancy introduces the episode structure and Scott's four key concepts; Mike explains discovering Scott's work at the intersection of public administration and anthropology

03:00 - 07:00 - Everyday Forms of Resistance
Explainer on hidden resistance in daily life; discussion of Indonesian flood management and animistic land practices

07:00 - 11:00 - From Job Descriptions to Legibility
Nancy's organizational development experience; Mike's story about the two women who "really ran" the university; introduction to legibility concept

11:00 - 16:00 - Legibility and Simplification
Explainer on cadastral mapping and forest management; immigration policy as example of complex simplification

16:00 - 20:00 - Planning and Local Knowledge
Discussion of urban sprawl, high-speed rail planning challenges, and Colin Ward's anarchist architecture

20:00 - 24:00 - Cadastral Mapping and Zoning
Historical context of land mapping for taxation; modern parallels in small business and cash economy