Google Essay by Dr. James C

American political scientist and anthropologist (born 1936)

James C. Scott
Scott in 2016
Built-in	(1936-12-02) December 2, 1936 (age 85) Mount Holly, New Jersey[1]
Alma mater	Williams College Yale University
Scientific career
Fields	Political science, anthropology
Institutions	University of Wisconsin Yale University
Doctoral students	Ben Kerkvliet Melissa Nobles Erik Ringmar Eric Tagliacozzo
Influences	Marc Bloch • Alexander Chayanov • John Dunn • Antonio Gramsci • Eric Hobsbawm • C. Wright Mills • Barrington Moore • Karl Polanyi • Due east.P. Thompson • Eric Wolf • Pierre Clastres • Ranajit Guha

James C. Scott (born Dec 2, 1936)^[two] is an American political scientist and anthropologist specializing in comparative politics. He is a comparative scholar of agrarian and non-country societies, subaltern politics, and riot. His primary research has centered on peasants of Southeast Asia and their strategies of resistance to various forms of domination.^[iii] The New York Times described his research as "highly influential and idiosyncratic".^[4]

Scott received his bachelor'due south degree from Williams College and his MA and PhD in political science from Yale. He taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison until 1976 and then at Yale, where he is Sterling Professor of Political Scientific discipline. Since 1991 he has directed Yale'due south Program in Agrarian Studies.^[5] He lives in Durham, Connecticut, where he once raised sheep.^{[3] [half-dozen]}

Early life and career [edit]

Scott was born in Mount Holly, New Jersey, in 1936.^[7] He attended the Moorestown Friends School, a Quaker Day Schoolhouse, and in 1953 matriculated at Williams College in Massachusetts.^[half-dozen] On the communication of Indonesia scholar William Hollinger he wrote an honors thesis on the economical evolution of Burma.^[6] Scott received his bachelor's caste from Williams College in 1958, and his PhD in political science from Yale University in 1967.^[7]

Upon graduation, Scott received a Rotary International Fellowship to report in Burma, where he was recruited by an American student activist who had become an anti-communist organizer for the Central Intelligence Bureau (CIA). Scott agreed to practise reporting for the agency, and at the terminate of his fellowship, took a postal service in the Paris office of the National Student Clan, which accepted CIA money and direction in working against communist-controlled global student movements over the side by side few years.^[8] Scott began graduate written report in political science at Yale in 1961. His dissertation on political credo in Malaysia, which was supervised by Robert E. Lane, analyzed interviews with Malaysian ceremonious servants. In 1967, he took a position as an assistant professor in political science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. As a Southeast Asia specialist teaching during the Vietnam War, he offered pop courses on the war and peasant revolutions.^[nine] In 1976, having earned tenure at Madison, Scott returned to Yale and settled on a farm in Durham, Connecticut with his wife. They started with a pocket-sized farm, so purchased a larger one nearby in the early 1980s and began raising sheep for their wool.^[nine] Since 2011, the pastures on the subcontract have been grazed by 2 Highland cattle, named Fife and Dundee.

Scott's first books were based on archival enquiry. He is an influential scholar of ethnographic fieldwork.^[x] He is unusual for conducting his master ethnographic fieldwork but subsequently receiving tenure. To inquiry his third book, Weapons of the Weak, Scott spent xiv months in a village in Kedah, Malaysia between 1978 and 1980.^[eleven] When he had finished a draft, he returned for two months to solicit villagers' impressions of his depiction, and significantly revised the book based on their criticisms and insight.^{[nine] [eleven]}

Major works [edit]

James Scott's work focuses on the ways that subaltern people resist domination.

The Moral Economic system of the Peasant [edit]

During the Vietnam War, Scott took an interest in Vietnam and wrote The Moral Economic system of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (1976) about the ways peasants resisted say-so. His chief argument is that peasants adopt the patron-customer relations of the "moral economy", in which wealthier peasants protect weaker ones. When these traditional forms of solidarity pause down due to the introduction of marketplace forces, rebellion (or revolution) is likely. Samuel Popkin, in his book The Rational Peasant (1979), tried to refute this argument, showing that peasants are also rational actors who prefer free markets to exploitation by local elites. Scott and Popkin thus represent two radically different positions in the formalist–substantivist debate in political anthropology.^[12]

Weapons of the Weak [edit]

In Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (1985) Scott expanded his theories to peasants in other parts of the world. Scott'due south theories are often contrasted with Gramscian ideas about hegemony. Against Gramsci, Scott argues that the everyday resistance of subalterns shows that they have non consented to dominance.^[11]

Domination and the Arts of Resistance [edit]

In Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (1990) argues that all subordinate groups apply strategies of resistance that get unnoticed past superordinate groups, which he terms "infrapolitics." Scott describes the open, public interactions betwixt dominators and oppressed equally a "public transcript" and the critique of power that goes on offstage equally a "hidden transcript." Groups under domination—from bonded labor to sexual violence—thus cannot exist understood only by their public deportment, which may appear acquiescent. In gild to study the systems of domination, careful attention is paid to what lies beneath the surface of evident, public behavior. In public, those that are oppressed have their domination, but they e'er question their domination offstage. On the outcome of a publicization of this "subconscious transcript", oppressed classes openly assume their oral communication, and go conscious of its common status.^[13]

Seeing Like a State [edit]

Scott's volume Seeing Like a Country: How Certain Schemes to Better the Human Condition Take Failed (1998) saw his first major foray into political science. In it, he showed how central governments endeavour to strength legibility on their subjects, and fail to run across complex, valuable forms of local social gild and noesis. A main theme of this book, illustrated by his historic examples, is that states operate systems of ability toward 'legibility' in guild to 'encounter' their subjects correctly in a top-down, modernist, model that is flawed, problematic, and ofttimes ends poorly for subjects. The goal of local 'legibility' by the land is 'transparency' from the superlative down, from the top of the tower or the center/seat of the government, so the state can effectively operate upon their subjects. The details and arguments amplify Foucault's cardinal notions of governmentality and operations of power.

Scott uses examples like the introduction of permanent last names in Peachy Uk, cadastral surveys in French republic, and standard units of measure out across Europe to argue that a reconfiguration of social gild is necessary for state scrutiny, and requires the simplification of pre-existing, natural arrangements. In the instance of last names, Scott cites a Welsh man who appeared in courtroom and identified himself with a long string of patronyms: "John, ap Thomas ap William" etc. In his local hamlet, this naming system carried a lot of information, because people could identify him every bit the son of Thomas and grandson of William, and thus distinguish him from the other Johns, the other children of Thomas, and the other grandchildren of William. Even so it was of less apply to the primal government, which did not know Thomas or William. The court demanded that John take a permanent concluding name (in this example, the name of his village). This helped the primal government keep rails of its subjects, only it lost local information.

Scott argues that in order for schemes to ameliorate the human status to succeed, they must have into account local conditions, and that the high-modernist ideologies of the 20th century accept prevented this. He highlights collective farms in the Soviet Union, the building of Brasilia, and Prussian forestry techniques as examples of failed schemes.^[14]

The Fine art of Not Being Governed [edit]

In The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, Scott addresses the question of how sure groups in the mountainous jungles of Southeast Asia managed to avoid a package of exploitation centered around the state, tax, and grain cultivation. Sure aspects of their society seen by outsiders equally backward (east.grand., limited literacy and utilize of written language) were in fact function of the "Arts" referenced in the title: limiting literacy meant lower visibility to the state. Scott'due south primary statement is that these people are "barbarian by pattern": their social organization, geographical location, subsistence practices and culture have been carved to discourage states to addendum them to their territories. Addressing identity in the Introduction, he wrote:

...All identities, without exception, take been socially constructed: the Han, the Burman, the American, the Danish, all of them ... To the degree that the identity is stigmatized by the larger state or society, it is likely to become for many a resistant and defiant identity. Hither invented identities combine with self-making of a heroic kind, in which such identifications go a badge of honor ...

—(pp. xii-iii.)

Against the Grain [edit]

Published in Baronial 2017, Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States is an account of new show for the beginnings of the earliest civilizations that contradict the standard narrative. Scott explores why nosotros avoided sedentism and plough agriculture; the advantages of mobile subsistence; the unforeseeable epidemics arising from crowding plants, animals, and grain; and why all early states are based on millets, cereal grains and unfree labor. He also discusses the "barbarians" who long evaded country control, as a way of agreement continuing tension betwixt states and non subject peoples.^[15]

Other works [edit]

In Two Cheers for Anarchism: Vi Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Nobility, and Meaningful Work and Play from 2012 Scott says that "Lacking a comprehensive anarchist worldview and philosophy, and in any case wary of nomothetic ways of seeing, I am making a case for a sort of anarchist squint. What I aim to show is that if you put on anarchist glasses and look at the history of popular movements, revolutions, ordinary politics, and the state from that angle, sure insights will appear that are obscured from almost any other angle. It will too become apparent that anarchist principles are active in the aspirations and political action of people who accept never heard of anarchism or anarchist philosophy."^[sixteen]

Awards and fellowships [edit]

Scott is a Fellow of the American University of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded resident fellowships at the Center for Advanced Report in the Behavioral Sciences, the Constitute for Advanced Study, and the Science, Engineering science and Society Programme at M.I.T.^[17] He has too received research grants from the National Scientific discipline Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Guggenheim Foundation, and was president of the Clan for Asian Studies in 1997. In 2020 he was elected to the American Philosophical Gild.^[18]

Selected bibliography [edit]

(Annotation: excludes edited volumes.)

• Confronting the Grain: A Deep History of the Primeval States. 2017
• Decoding subaltern politics. Ideology, disguise, and resistance in agrarian politics. Routledge, 2012 (Critical Asian scholarship ; viii) ISBN 978-0-415-53975-3
• Two Thank you for Riot: Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Nobility, and Meaningful Work and Play. Princeton University Printing, 2012 ISBN 978-0-691-15529-6
• The Fine art of Not Beingness Governed: An Agitator History of Upland Southeast Asia. Yale University Printing, 2009 ISBN 978-0-300-15228-9
• Seeing Similar a Country: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human being Condition Have Failed. Yale University Press, 1998 ISBN 978-0-300-07016-iii
• Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. Yale University Press, 1990 ISBN 978-0-300-04705-nine
• Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. Yale Academy Press, 1985 ISBN 978-0-300-03336-6
• The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. Yale University Press, 1979 ISBN 978-0-300-01862-2
• Comparative Political Corruption. Prentice-Hall, 1972 ISBN 978-0-13-179036-0

Run into likewise [edit]

• Societal collapse
• Zomia

References [edit]

1. ^ Munck, Gerardo L.; Snyder, Richard (2007). "Peasants, Power, and the Fine art of Resistance". Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN978-0-8018-8464-1.
2. ^ "James C. SCOTT". Secretariat of the Fukuoka Prize Committee. Retrieved Baronial 10, 2017.
3. ^ ^{a b} Schuessler, Jennifer (December five, 2012). "James C. Scott: Farmer and Scholar of Anarchism". New York Times . Retrieved February 24, 2015.
4. ^ Schuessler, Jennifer. "James C. Scott, Farmer and Scholar of Anarchism". Retrieved Baronial 20, 2018.
5. ^ "Academic Prize 2010, Honour Citation". Fukuoka Prize. 2010. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
6. ^ ^{a b c} Scott, James C. (March 26, 2009). "James Scott interviewed by Alan Macfarlane" (Interview: video). Vol. 1. Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane. Cambridge, England. Retrieved Nov 26, 2014.
7. ^ ^{a b} Munck, Gerardo L.; Snyder, Richard (2007). Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 352. ISBN978-0-8018-8464-1.
8. ^ Paget, Karen 1000. (2015). Patriotic Betrayal: The Inside Story of the CIA's Secret Campaign to Enroll American Students in the Crusade Against Communism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. pp. 235, 395, 407–408. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
9. ^ ^{a b c} Scott, James C. (March 26, 2009). "James Scott interviewed past Alan Macfarlane" (Interview: video). Vol. ii. Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane. Cambridge, England. Retrieved November 26, 2014.
10. ^ Wedeen, Lisa (May one, 2010). "Reflections on Ethnographic Work in Political Science". Almanac Review of Political Science. thirteen (1): 255–272. doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.052706.123951. ISSN 1094-2939.
11. ^ ^{a b c} Scott, James C. (1985). Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance . New Haven: Yale University Printing. ISBN978-0-300-03641-1.
12. ^ Scott, James C. (September ten, 1977). The Moral Economic system of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. ISBN978-0-300-18555-3.
13. ^ Scott, James C. (1990). Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. ISBN978-0-300-05669-3.
14. ^ Scott, James C. (1998). Seeing Similar a Country: How Sure Schemes to Ameliorate the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
15. ^ "Against the Grain". yalebooks.yale.edu. Yale University Printing. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
16. ^ Scott, James C. (2012). Two Cheers for Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity, and Meaningful Work and Play. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
17. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2012. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
18. ^ "The American Philosophical Gild Welcomes New Members for 2020". American Philosophical Social club. May 5, 2020.

External links [edit]

• Homepage at Yale
• James Scott explores governance in the Southeast Asian highlands at Asia Society, November 2010 (due west/ video)
• interviewed past Alan Macfarlane 26th March 2009 followed by his Mellon Lecture given in Cambridge
• Interview with James Scott by Theory Talks, May 2010
• Interviewed past Benjamin Ferron and Claire Oger 20th June 2018 (The Conversation)

bowerivere1942.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_C._Scott