{"id":94,"date":"2018-10-18T08:29:54","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T12:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/psci257-f18\/?p=94"},"modified":"2018-10-18T08:30:48","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T12:30:48","slug":"reading-notes-for-james-c-scotts-seeing-like-a-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/psci257-f18\/reading-notes\/reading-notes-for-james-c-scotts-seeing-like-a-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Notes for James C. Scott’s “Seeing Like a State”"},"content":{"rendered":"
James C. Scott,\u00a0Seeing Like a State<\/i><\/div>\n
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1.\u00a0 James Scott seems to express skepticism of the project of modernity, at least in its manifestation in the realm of state formation.\u00a0 How does Scott’s concept of “high modernist ideology” compare to Mirsepassi’s rejection of modernity’s “dark origins?” \u00a0How are their critiques similar or different?<\/div>\n
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2.\u00a0 Scott is famously concerned with recovering the stories and the voices of the voiceless (“hidden transcripts” and the “weapons of the weak” are among the phrases associated with his research).\u00a0 Above all, Scott disdains portrayals of state authority as a natural, benign, or even neutral force.\u00a0 Across the text of\u00a0Seeing Like a State<\/i>, the reader gets a full dose of his skepticism, and yet he expresses ambivalence as to the worthiness of state projects and of the logic of modern rule.\u00a0 Please consider his comments on pages 54 and 62, for example, on the design of Paris, or more dramatically, his take on the\u00a0 mapping of Amsterdam’s Jews, found on pg. 78.\u00a0 Is the “legible city” ever a neutral technology?\u00a0 If “illegibility…has been and remains a reliable resource for political autonomy,” is the loss of individual freedom worth the gains made in hygiene, organization, and the preservation of private selves and property?<\/div>\n
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3.\u00a0 The above question can be put another way:\u00a0 On balance, what normative judgement can we make of modernity?\u00a0 In class we’ve struggled with this question, leaning on the decidedly non-academic language of “good versus bad.”\u00a0 How might we think of modernity in terms other than these?\u00a0 Can we escape the binary?<\/div>\n
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4.\u00a0 As you read Scott, keep in mind the distinctions that we’ve already touched upon, cleavages thrown up by the emergence of the modern era:\u00a0 public\/private, sacred\/profane, as well as temporal and physical distinctions.\u00a0 Why did the positivists see the past as an impediment to the future?\u00a0 How does the desire for timelessness and “placelessness” compare to the discussion raised by Danny, that of “recovering modernity” in the ancient past, or the technique of “authenticating modernity?”<\/div>\n
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5.\u00a0 Finally, consider the comparisons made by Scott between Lenin and Luxemburg, and Corbusier and Jacobs.\u00a0 Scott offers the pairings as gendered alternatives, with a clear preference for the “right side” of the ledger.\u00a0 Are you convinced?\u00a0 Did his use of gender strike you as…strange?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James C. Scott,\u00a0Seeing Like a State \u00a0 1.\u00a0 James Scott seems to express skepticism of the project of modernity, at least in its manifestation in the realm of state formation.\u00a0 How does Scott’s concept of “high modernist ideology” compare to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1690,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading-notes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/psci257-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/psci257-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/psci257-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/psci257-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1690"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/psci257-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/psci257-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/psci257-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/95"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/psci257-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/psci257-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/psci257-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}