James C Scott
Biographic Data
| ID | 92545 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James C Scott |
| GIVEN NAMES | James C |
| FAMILY NAME | Scott |
| SIGNATURE | SCOTT J C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Yale University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8369-4420 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 94 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3713 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 93 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 21 |
Two Cheers for Anarchism
In Praise of Floods
« Zomia ou L’Art de ne pas être gouverné » de James C. Scott
Intellectual Diary of an Iconoclast
Trying to address a series of large questions—e.g., when peasants rebel, clandestine forms of resistance, state “imagination,” and the origin of the very first agrarian states—led me to abandon much of the standard political science “tool kit.” This is an account of that intellectual journey. [James C. Scott died on July 19, 2024, just days before this short intellectual biography went live. Scott was an intellectual giant, an eloquent writer, an…
Planifier l'imprévu
Reading Romans 13
Romans 13:1–7 is a potential key text in determining the theological response of the churches in Myanmar to the 2021 coup. The text presents those who invoke its use with a dilemma that requires resolution and decision. Is it an oppressive text that justifies the coup and commands the church’s blind obedience to the coup-led state? Does Paul’s exhortation to be subject to the governing authorities’ (13:1) justify the line of the church’s uncritic…
Tribe and State in Asia through Twenty-Five Centuries
If a single, compact survey of a large and complex issue were adduced to justify the Association of Asian Studies's invention of its series of “Shorts,” scholars need look no further than Sumit Guha's volume on Tribes and State in Asia. It is an astute and wide-ranging guide to the term tribe in all its permutations: from what Europeans refer to as the Near East to the Far East and many places between, including South Asia, about which Guha is a …
The perils of national narratives
The “Business Plan” of Hunter-Gatherers
The history zeitgeist, it seems, is headed toward the trés longue durée. For the adherents of the Annales School of historiography, the term designated a turn away from “events”—for example, a coronation, a treaty, a battle—in favor of a turn toward less newsworthy processes—namely, demographic change, diet, migration, class formation, family structure—that were deemed in the long run more decisive for human history. It meant as well a turn away …
To the state, all discouraged flora are “weeds”
Response
The large-spirited, learned, and sharp-witted organizers and contributors to this collection of essays have come to understand that I have quite mixed feelings about Festschriften and have dodged them for as long as possible. Why? Well, there are two reasons. The first reason is that such performances risk becoming a classic example of what I have elsewhere called “the public transcript.” The form tends to suppress dissent in favor of praise and …
Lisa Wedeen
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Further Reflections onSeeing Like a State
Domination and the Arts of Resistance
From Jennies to Jato
The First World War was seminal to the development of military aeronautics and aircraft/aerospace manufacturing in California. While flight innovators Glenn L. Martin and Glenn H. Curtiss made key prewar contributions to military aviation within the state, it was America's entry into the war that was the primary catalyst to the establishment of military air facilities as well as a constellation of small, federally contracted airplane factories wi…
Seeing Like a State
Seeing Like a State
In this wide-ranging and original book, James C. Scott analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields. He argues that centrally managed social plans derail when they impose schematic visions that do violence to complex interdependencies that are not -- and cannot be -- fully understood. Further the success of designs for social organization depends on the recognition that local, practical knowledge is as important…
Response
The fact that 10 notable scholars have taken the time to examine my book Against the Grain and provide thoughtful commentary is a form of flattery of which I am acutely conscious and very grateful. This would be the case even if their comments had ben totally damning! I braced myself for the onslaught of a phalanx of archaeologists justifiably indignant that a rank amateur should even dare trespass on their turf. When invited to reply to such a s…
Response to commentaries on Against the Grain
I want to begin with a note of appreciation to the Journal of Peasant Studies for organizing this symposium on my book Against the Grain and to the five scholars who have done me the honor of devot
The Art of Not Being Governed
For two thousand years the disparate groups that now reside in Zomia (a mountainous region the size of Europe that consists of portions of seven Asian countries) have fled the projects of the organized state societies that surround them—slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labor, epidemics, and warfare. This book, essentially an “anarchist history,” is the first-ever examination of the huge literature on state-making whose author evaluates why pe…
Weapons of the Weak
This sensitive picture of the constant and circumspect struggle waged by peasants materially and ideologically against their oppressors shows that techniques of evasion and resistance may represent the most significant and effective means of class struggle in the long run. "A major contribution to peasant studies, Malaysian studies, and the literature on revolutions and class consciousness."--Benedict R. Anderson, Cornell University "The book is …
Domination and the Arts of Resistance
"Play fool, to catch wise." proverb of Jamaican slaves Confrontations between the powerless and powerful are laden with deception the powerless feign deference and the powerful subtly assert their mastery. Peasants, serfs, untouchables, slaves, laborers, and prisoners are not free to speak their minds in the presence of power. These subordinate groups instead create a secret discourse that represents a critique of power spoken behind the backs of…
Against the Grain
Los dominados y el arte de la resistencia
Corruption, Machine Politics, and Political Change
The study of political influence in the West has for the most part focused on the process by which interest groups affect the content of legislation; hence, the input process has occupied the center of attention. Students of politics in the new states of Africa and Asia who have adopted this perspective, however, have been struck by the relative weakness both of interest structures to organize demands and of institutionalized channels through whi…
Seeing Like a State
In Seeing Like a State, James C. Scott argues that large-scale social engineering projects of the 20th century frequently failed because of state simplification, a process whereby states create simplified representations of complex social realities in order to make them legible and governable. These simplified representations, while seemingly rational and scientific, often ignore crucial local knowledge and practices, leading to unintended conseq…
The Moral Economy of the Peasant
James C. Scott places the critical problem of the peasant household subsistence at the center of this study. The fear of food shortages, he argues persuasively, explains many otherwise puzzling technical, social, and moral arrangements in peasant society, such as resistance to innovation, the desire to own land even at some cost in terms of income, relationships with other people, and relationships with institutions, including the state. Once the…
Patron-Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia
The analysis presented here is an effort to elaborate the patron-client model of association, developed largely by anthropologists, and to demonstrate its applicability to political action in Southeast Asia. Inasmuch as patron-client structures are not unique to Southeast Asia but are much in evidence, particularly in Latin America, in Africa, and in less developed portions of Europe, the analysis may possibly have more general value for understa…
Everyday Forms of Resistance
The Hidden Realm of Political ConflictDescriptions and analyses of open political action dominate accounts of political conflict.This is the case whether those accounts are presented by historians, political scientists, journalists, statesmen, or leaders of popular movements.Some of the most telling analyses of conflict are in fact designed precisely to explain under what circumstances groups in conflict resort to one or another kind of open poli…
Two Cheers for Anarchism
James Scott taught us what's wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to date, the acclaimed social scientist makes the case for seeing like an anarchist. Inspired by the core anarchist faith in the possibilities of voluntary cooperation without hierarchy, Two Cheers for Anarchism is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing--one that provides a unique and powerful …
Corruption, Machine Politics, and Political Change
The study of political influence in the West has for the most part focused on the process by which interest groups affect the content of legislation; hence, the input process has occupied the center of attention.Students of politics in the new states of Africa and Asia who have adopted this perspective, however, have been struck by the relative weakness both of interest structures to organize demands and of institutionalized channels through whic…
Domination and the Arts of Resistance
"Play fool, to catch wise." proverb of Jamaican slaves Confrontations between the powerless and powerful are laden with deception the powerless feign deference and the powerful subtly assert their mastery. Peasants, serfs, untouchables, slaves, laborers, and prisoners are not free to speak their minds in the presence of power. These subordinate groups instead create a secret discourse that represents a critique of power spoken behind the backs of…
Weapons of the Weak
This sensitive picture of the constant and circumspect struggle waged by peasants materially and ideologically against their oppressors shows that techniques of evasion and resistance may represent the most significant and effective means of class struggle in the long run. "A major contribution to peasant studies, Malaysian studies, and the literature on revolutions and class consciousness."--Benedict R. Anderson, Cornell University "The book is …
Against the Grain
The Erosion of Patron-Client Bonds and Social Change in Rural Southeast Asia
This paper attempts to explain how, in Southeast Asia, the strong patron-client bonds which joined peasants to local elites tended to break down during the colonial period-particularly in directly-ruled low-land areas. By examining the effects of social differentiation, the commercialization of subsistence agriculture, and the growth of colonial administration on day-to-day class relations in the countryside, it is possible to show how a relation…
The Role of Theory in Comparative Politics
The Center of International Studies at Princeton University organized a symposium during 1993—94 on the role of theory in comparative politics. Presented here is an edited and condensed version of the proceedings. In light of recent challenges posed by both rational choice and post-modern cultural approaches, the symposium helped elucidate the merits of competing theoretical approaches. A group of distinguished scholars presented a variety of vie…
The Production of Legal Identities Proper to States
State naming practices and local, customary naming practices are strikingly different. Each set of practices is designed to make the human and physical landscape legible, by sharply identifying a unique individual, a household, or a singular geographic feature. Yet they are each devised by very distinct agents for whom the purposes of identification are radically different. Purely local, customary practices, as we shall see, achieve a level of pr…
What Makes Peasants Revolutionary
The Moral Economy of the Peasant. Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia
VRÜ Verfassung und Recht in Übersee , Seite 246 - 246
"Afterword to "Moral Economies, State Spaces, and Categorical Violence
This Afterword is a discussion of commentary and criticism of my books, The Moral Economy of the Peasant (1976), Weapons of the Weak (1985), Domination and the Arts of Resistance (1990), and Seeing Like a State (1998). I examine the relation of moral economies to globalization, and hegemony to power and resistance, in agrarian societies and in contemporary U.S. politics. I debate contemporary neoliberal projects of governance in extractive, encla…
Resistance without Protest and without Organization
This study presents an analysis of Malay peasant resistance to the Islamiczakattoday and of French peasant resistance earlier to the Christian tithe, but it is offered with a larger argument in mind. Its purpose is to show that a vast range of what counts-or should count-as peasant resistance involves no overt protest and requires little or no organization
Seeing like a State
The Analysis of Corruption in Developing Nations
By way of introducing so charged a subject as corruption we do well to remind ourselves that if the traditional rulers of the colonized areas left much to be desired in terms of present standards of public office-holding, the colonizers themselves could scarcely be regarded as models of probity. Colonial office until the twentieth century was regarded more often than not as an investment in an exclusive franchise that was expected to yield a good…
Formas cotidianas da resistência camponesa
O artigo tem como objetivo revisar algumas teorias clássicas sobre o campesinato que privilegiam as greves, rebeliões, ações contra o estado, organizações institucionais como espaços de expressão política dos camponeses. Reconhece-se a importância destas ações no cenário político, no entanto, elas nos dizem pouco sobre a luta mais vital e cotidiana levada na fábrica pela jornada de trabalho, pelo salário, pela autonomia, por direitos e por respei…
Infrapolitics and Mobilizations
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Infra-politique des groupes subalternes
Le continent inconnu des résistances invisibles
State Simplifications
Revolution in the revolution
On Violence
This anthology brings together classic perspectives on violence, putting into productive conversation the thought of well-known theorists and activists, including Hannah Arendt, Karl Marx, G. W. F. Hegel, Osama bin Laden, Sigmund Freud, Frantz Fanon, Thomas Hobbes, and Pierre Bourdieu. The volume proceeds from the editors’ contention that violence is always historically contingent; it must be contextualized to be understood. They argue that viole…
Exploração normal, resistência normal
A partir de sua pesquisa entre camponeses da Malásia, James C. Scott desenvolve o conceito de "resistência cotidiana", expressão da luta prosaica e constante entre os integrantes das classes dominadas e aqueles que deles buscam extrair trabalho, comida, impostos, rendas e juros. Ela se expressa na forma de corpo mole, dissimulação, falsa aquiescência, furto, ignorância fingida, calúnia, incêndio ou sabotagem. Assim, a ausência de formas mais visí…
Corruption, Machine Politics, and Political Change
The study of political influence in the West has for the most part focused on the process by which interest groups affect the content of legislation; hence, the input process has occupied the center of attention.Students of politics in the new states of Africa and Asia who have adopted this perspective, however, have been struck by the relative weakness both of interest structures to organize demands and of institutionalized channels through whic…
The Analysis of Corruption in Developing Nations
By way of introducing so charged a subject as corruption we do well to remind ourselves that if the traditional rulers of the colonized areas left much to be desired in terms of present standards of public office-holding, the colonizers themselves could scarcely be regarded as models of probity. Colonial office until the twentieth century was regarded more often than not as an investment in an exclusive franchise that was expected to yield a good…
Political Ideology in Malaysia
Political Ideology in Malaysia. Reality and the Beliefs of an Elite
VRÜ Verfassung und Recht in Übersee , Seite 412 - 412
The Erosion of Patron-Client Bonds and Social Change in Rural Southeast Asia
This paper attempts to explain how, in Southeast Asia, the strong patron-client bonds which joined peasants to local elites tended to break down during the colonial period-particularly in directly-ruled low-land areas. By examining the effects of social differentiation, the commercialization of subsistence agriculture, and the growth of colonial administration on day-to-day class relations in the countryside, it is possible to show how a relation…
Patron-Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia
The analysis presented here is an effort to elaborate the patron-client model of association, developed largely by anthropologists, and to demonstrate its applicability to political action in Southeast Asia. Inasmuch as patron-client structures are not unique to Southeast Asia but are much in evidence, particularly in Latin America, in Africa, and in less developed portions of Europe, the analysis may possibly have more general value for understa…
The Politics of Survival
the chief social basis of radicalism has been the peasant and the smaller artisan J i n the towns. From the facts, one may conclude that the wellsprings of human freedom lie not only where Marx saw them, in the aspirations of classes about to take power, but perhaps even more in the dying wail of a class over whom the wave of progress is about to roll. The Southeast Asian peasantry has historically sought, as best it could, to secure its economic…
Peasant Revolution
The Moral Economy of the Peasant
Protest and profanation
The Moral Economy of the Peasant
The Politics of Belonging
The Moral Economy of the Peasant. Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia
VRÜ Verfassung und Recht in Übersee , Seite 246 - 246
The Moral Economy of the Peasant. Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia
Revolution in the revolution
Friends, Followers, and Factions
What Makes Peasants Revolutionary
Everyday Forms of Class Struggle between Ex-Patrons and Ex-Clients
The green revolution in Malaysia, as elsewhere, has produced higher incomes and economic security for large farmers, and stagnant or declining incomes for the poor. In the case reported here, the advent of double-cropping, new tenure systems, and combine harvesting has allowed wealthy villagers to strip away the employment, land rental, and social concessions on which the traditional patron-client relations were based. Islamic charity has also be…
Village-Level Modernization in Southeast Asia. The Political Economy of Rice and Water
Domains of Analysis
Extraordinary Insights on Ordinary Conflicts
Weapons of the Weak
History from Below
Resistance without Protest and without Organization
This study presents an analysis of Malay peasant resistance to the Islamiczakattoday and of French peasant resistance earlier to the Christian tithe, but it is offered with a larger argument in mind. Its purpose is to show that a vast range of what counts-or should count-as peasant resistance involves no overt protest and requires little or no organization
Prestige as the Public Discourse of Domination
T here is something very public and visible about prestige and its cose cousin, status. Of course, it is possible for someone to have great status or prestige as an insider--She's a mathematician's mathematician; Masons say he's the best bricklayer around-but this merely tells us that the prestige extends only to an esoteric public of those who know. Completely covert status or prestige is almost a contradiction in terms. Display of some kind see…
Political science (57 works) · Sociology (42 works) · Law (41 works) · Politics (35 works) · History (26 works) · Law (19 works) · Philosophy (18 works) · Art (17 works) · Computer Science (17 works) · Economics (17 works)