Seeing Like a State
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
Seeing Like a State
| Full title | Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed |
|---|---|
| Author | James C. Scott |
| Published | 1998 |
| Pages | 454 |
| Recommended | 2 times |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Scott’s account of why grand schemes fail: to administer something you must first make it legible, legibility means throwing away local knowledge, and the thing you end up managing is the simplified map rather than the territory. The source of “mētis” and “legibility” as terms of art. |
Where I heard about it
- My own reading list — a bare Amazon link I saved sometime in 2024–2026.
- Brendan McCord — on his Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List (March 2026), in Evolution of Institutions and Public Administration.
Connections
- Legibility — the concept this book put into circulation.
- City Building — the portfolio idea this sits closest to; Brasilia and Le Corbusier are two of Scott’s central cases.
- Regulation · People Over Politics — where the argument lands.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.