James C. Scott

James C. Scott was an American political scientist and anthropologist whose work examined peasant societies, state power, resistance, and the limits of centralized planning.

Weapons of the Weak: James C. Scott’s study of everyday resistance among Malaysian peasants, published in 1985. This book established how small acts of evasion and noncompliance can resist domination.
Seeing Like a State: James C. Scott’s 1998 book on state simplifications and the failures of high-modernist planning. It develops his account of legibility through cases of schemes that reshaped society and landscapes.
Benedict Anderson: A political scientist and historian best known for his account of nations as imagined communities. Anderson and Scott were influential contemporaries in the study of nationalism and Southeast Asian politics.
Administrative state: A state that governs through specialized agencies, records, rules, and administrative expertise. Scott examined how administrative capacity can simplify social life and magnify coercive power.
Yale University: A private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, founded in 1701. Scott taught at Yale for decades and helped shape its political science program.
Hidden transcript: A concept for speech and conduct that subordinate groups use away from the surveillance of powerholders. Scott used it to distinguish private dissent from public performances of deference.
High modernism: A strong belief in scientific and technical progress through comprehensive, centrally directed social transformation. Scott identified high modernism as a key ingredient in disastrous state planning.
Clifford Geertz: An American anthropologist who developed interpretive approaches to culture and conducted fieldwork in Indonesia. Geertz’s interpretive anthropology shaped the intellectual setting in which Scott studied rural societies.
Social engineering: The deliberate redesign of social institutions or behavior according to a planned model. Scott challenged confidence that comprehensive redesign can succeed without local knowledge.
Kedah: A state in northwestern Malaysia, bordering Thailand and the Strait of Malacca. Scott’s fieldwork among rice-growing communities in Kedah informed Weapons of the Weak.

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PeasantRelated: His work examines how peasants resist domination through everyday practices as well as open revolt.