parikshith_shashikumar Annotations

3. Argument Anatomy: Excluding the Introduction, list out/ identify the key movements of the argument, till conclusion. Each one a few sentences. (If a Book, list out what each chapter/section contributed)

Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - 11:44am

The book is divided into five sections. The introduction, where legibility is introduced and articulated as a concern. The next section had to do with scientific- forestry policy in Germany hammers home the notion of simplification as a key process in modern statecraft and society. This is followed the third section which primely focuses on city planning. Here direction and appearance are added to the process of simplification. Appearance here refers to a semiotic logic where organized arrangement pertaining to aesthetic or ascribed pragmatic logic, somehow ensures superior operation. The thrust of this argument is that the lack of perceivable pattern denotes a failing or dead system. This preference for the arranged leads to the fourth section where the processes of social engineering and production are analyzed through a multitude of land cultivation cases. The engendered notions of progress or direction and preference are shown alongside the difficulties the two apparatus bring. Time and again the cases show the neglecting of knowledge gained sustain the intergenerational practice and the preference for scientific optimization.   In each instance, scientific optimization cause ecological and agricultural calamity only to be rectified through a return to, or incorporation of local practices. The final section characterizes the nature of such rectification knowledge calling it Mētis. What is of note here is that such knowledge is amicable or pro-scientific analysis and method. Moreover, the irrational or unscientific assertion on semiotic appearance giving rise to function rejected for attention to possibility and relation. Mētis undemocratic and unequal in distribution. However, it is far more flexible both in its claim to authority and susceptibility in learning.

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2. Agenda : Thesis, Ideas of Focus, Claims/ Assumptions, Method

Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - 11:41am
Scott's work covers vast areas of human history, ingenuity, policy, and structure. In this Scott's own effort ironically, is in an exercise in making visible the operations statecrafts' legibility and the consequences of the same. His examples work as clusters, each illustrating a key pattern, the reiteration of key ideas. Authoritarian High- Modernism becomes the key concept that pins down the functioning of legibility in all its complex manifestations. To be sure this concept both refers to and is deployed with the western historical framework, and is thus less a theoretical suggestion, and more a conceptual characterization. Authoritarian High- Modernism runs through the book, connecting to various historical events and practices, however breaking down its use in the book, and restricting its connection to the object of legibility, their key idea's can named. They are a simplification, direction, and preference. Before expanding on the three, a word on the method of their articulation is required. Scott traces the prevalence of these ideas in political policy, scientific analysis, technological function, and social practice. In each instance is chosen with the aim of illustrating one or more of these ideas. Thus, beginning with the idea of simplification, Scott shows how the functioning of the map which simplifies the complexity of located environment into mere topographic and navigational features, functions similarly to agricultural scientific research, which often simplifies complex pedological, vegetational process and features into controllable variables. The second aspect of direction, Scott points out is a particular feature of the modern state. While earlier statecraft argent had the agenda of extending and marinating power over society, modern arrangement's have the implicit notion of bettering society. That is, with the agenda and function of directing society towards a preferred formation or conduct. It is here that preference comes into play. This direction or betterment is not merely conversed but sold, where the social entities are taught to prefer the direction. Thus scientific reformation is not merely followed but is made to be expected and preferred. What this means, however, is that the social entities come to adopt the many simplifications made by the statecraft. To 'see' in another away is not only to contradict but is to impede direction, thus Authoritarian High- Modernism covers both repressive and ideological tactics of legitimizing arrangements.
What must be noted here is that Authoritarian High- Modernism is ultimately a form of knowledge that the statecraft both subscribers and prescribes. This knowledge is communicable and replicable for it approaches situations in its forms and is, itself a formulaic. Technê, Epistêmê, are the predominant conceptual aspects of this knowledge and Scott remarks that Western civilization has favored the two. Scott offers a challenge to the two, which is explored in the final section of the book. The concept is that of Mētis which involves experiential knowledge. The difference Scott points out is that such experiential gained sustain contact with the studied situation pay due attention to the complex relationships present in the situation. Moreover, the perceived or learned complexity is left intact as it can not be communicated without proximate experience.
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1. Framing : Identify the Concern, Context and Question. Comment on the relation of the three.

Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - 11:35am

The fundamental question that drives Scott's work is that of 'legibility'. That is the states ability to see, read and make sense of its own society. The work originally stemmed from an interest in the tension between the state and those communities or identities that pose a difficulty to document or account for, such as nomadic tribes or immigrants. Scott's pursuit quickly led him to concentrate on the state's method of documentation itself. The cornerstone Scott's concern is that of 'difficulty', that is the difficulty of the state implementing and managing this feedback loop of accounting of its own society. Thus rather than an account, or document, 'legality' becomes the key concept, as it incorporates the states intentional viewpoint, operation and hits at the limitation that is struggled with. However, the pursuit of this concept quickly reviles another dimension of this content, that is that legibly is not achieved through mere tactics of scrutiny, but rather through the arrangement. In other words, the state makes legible through statecraft. The thrust made here is that the state's sovereignty is interwind with the act of making legible, which itself is intertwined with resistances that have to be contended with. Thus going forward legibility is both the goal of the statecraft which is the object of the study, and it's a difficulty.

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