Seeing Like A State (Book Club, January 2018)

This is the wrap-up video for the seventh month of the book club. This month we read Seeing Like A State by James C. Scott.

About the book:

Compulsory ujamaa villages in Tanzania, collectivization in Russia, Le Corbusier’s urban planning theory realized in Brasilia, 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.

You can buy the book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-like-St...

Interested in joining the book club?

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Note: this video contains spoiler alerts!

Short on time? Skip to these sections:

00:00 Introduction and Summary of Book
7:26 Main Themes in the book, the failure of high modernity
12:09 Mites Vs “Techny”
14:43 Introduction of Trent Fowler
17:56 Embodied Knowledge
21:37 Scientific Forestry
27:44 Career Applications
33:32 Implications for Early Populations
34:53 The Fatal Conceit
40:00 Summary