{"title":"James C. Scott","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJames C. Scott\u003c\/strong\u003e offers profound insights into the complex relationships between states, societies, and individuals. His books explore themes of power, resistance, and governance, shedding light on how ordinary people navigate and often subvert authority through subtle and overt acts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRooted in history, politics, and anthropology, Scott’s works challenge traditional narratives about civilisation and control. Readers can expect compelling analyses of state structures, grassroots anarchism, and the hidden dynamics that shape human societies and their environments.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"against-the-grain-by-james-c-scott-9780300240214","title":"Against the Grain","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn \u003ci\u003eEconomist\u003c\/i\u003e Best History Book 2017\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“History as it should be written.” — Barry Cunliffe, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Scott hits the nail squarely on the head by exposing the staggering price our ancestors paid for civilization and political order.” — Walter Scheidel, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhy did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains, and governed by precursors of today’s states? Most people believe that plant and animal domestication allowed humans, finally, to settle down and form agricultural villages, towns, and states, which made possible civilization, law, public order, and a presumably secure way of living. But archaeological and historical evidence challenges this narrative.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe first agrarian states, says James C. Scott, were born of accumulations of domestications: first fire, then plants, livestock, subjects of the state, captives, and finally women in the patriarchal family — all of which can be viewed as a way of gaining control over reproduction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eScott explores why we avoided sedentism and plow agriculture, the advantages of mobile subsistence, the unforeseeable disease epidemics arising from crowding plants, animals, and grain, and why all early states are based on millets and cereal grains and unfree labour. He also discusses the “barbarians” who long evaded state control, as a way of understanding continuing tension between states and non-subject peoples.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46796001575148,"sku":"9780300240214","price":35.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/24399883482294.jpg?v=1757071047"},{"product_id":"seeing-like-a-state-by-james-c-scott-9780300246759","title":"Seeing Like a State","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.”—John Gray, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A powerful, and in many insightful, explanation as to why grandiose programs of social reform, not to mention revolution, so often end in tragedy... An important critique of visionary state planning.\"—Robert Heilbroner, \u003ci\u003eLingua Franca\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHailed as “a magisterial critique of top-down social planning” by the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail—sometimes catastrophically—in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.”—\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“A tour de force.”— Charles Tilly, Columbia University\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Institution for Social and Policy Studies\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"John Wiley and Sons Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46796711952620,"sku":"9780300246759","price":40.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/24465333482294.jpg?v=1757103881"},{"product_id":"two-cheers-for-anarchism-by-james-c-scott-9780691161037","title":"Two Cheers for Anarchism","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJames 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, \u003cem\u003eTwo Cheers for Anarchism\u003c\/em\u003e is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing—one that provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough a wide-ranging series of memorable anecdotes and examples, the book describes an anarchist sensibility that celebrates the local knowledge, common sense, and creativity of ordinary people. The result is a kind of handbook on constructive anarchism that challenges us to radically reconsider the value of hierarchy in public and private life, from schools and workplaces to retirement homes and government itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBeginning with what Scott calls \"the law of anarchist calisthenics,\" an argument for law-breaking inspired by an East German pedestrian crossing, each chapter opens with a story that captures an essential anarchist truth. In the course of telling these stories, Scott touches on a wide variety of subjects: public disorder and riots, desertion, poaching, vernacular knowledge, assembly-line production, globalisation, the petty bourgeoisie, school testing, playgrounds, and the practice of historical explanation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFar from a dogmatic manifesto, \u003cem\u003eTwo Cheers for Anarchism\u003c\/em\u003e celebrates the anarchist confidence in the inventiveness and judgement of people who are free to exercise their creative and moral capacities.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46851971678444,"sku":"9780691161037","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/1597513482434.jpg?v=1759136158"},{"product_id":"in-praise-of-floods-by-james-c-scott-9780300278491","title":"In Praise of Floods","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJames C. Scott reframes rivers as alive and dynamic, revealing the consequences of treating them as resources for our profit.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRivers, on a long view, are alive. They are born; they change; they shift their channels; they forge new routes to the sea; they move both gradually and violently; they can teem (usually) with life; they may die a quasi-natural death; they are frequently maimed and even murdered.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is the annual flood pulse—the brief time when the river occupies the floodplain—that gives a river its vitality, but it is human engineering that kills it, suppressing the flood pulse with dams, irrigation, siltation, dikes, and levees. In demonstrating these threats to the riverine world, award-winning author James C. Scott examines the life history of a particular river, the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) of Burma, the heartland and superhighway of Burman culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn Praise of Floods\u003c\/em\u003e opens our understanding of rivers to encompass their entirety—tributaries, wetlands, floodplains, backwaters, eddies, periodic marshlands, and the assemblage of life forms dependent on rivers for their existence and well-being. For anyone interested in the Anthropocene and the Great Acceleration, rivers offer a striking example of the consequences of human intervention in trying to control and domesticate a natural process, the complexity and variability of which we barely understand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46854607274220,"sku":"9780300278491","price":47.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/59e06814c2e83008cc3a7861037464b9.jpg?v=1759267663"},{"product_id":"the-art-of-not-being-governed-by-james-c-scott-9780300169171","title":"The Art of Not Being Governed","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the acclaimed author and scholar James C. Scott, the compelling tale of Asian peoples who until recently have stemmed the vast tide of state-making to live at arm’s length from any organised state society.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor 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 organised state societies that surround them—slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labour, epidemics, and warfare. \u003cem\u003eThe Art of Not Being Governed\u003c\/em\u003e, essentially an “anarchist history,” is the first-ever examination of the huge literature on state-making whose author evaluates why people would deliberately and reactively remain stateless.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmong the strategies employed by the people of Zomia to remain stateless are physical dispersion in rugged terrain, agricultural practices that enhance mobility, pliable ethnic identities, devotion to prophetic, millenarian leaders, and maintenance of a largely oral culture that allows them to reinvent their histories and genealogies as they move between and around states.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn accessible language, James Scott, recognised worldwide as an eminent authority in Southeast Asian, peasant, and agrarian studies, tells the story of the peoples of Zomia and their unlikely odyssey in search of self-determination. He redefines our views on Asian politics, history, demographics, and even our fundamental ideas about what constitutes civilisation, and challenges us with a radically different approach to history that presents events from the perspective of stateless peoples and redefines state-making as a form of “internal colonialism.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis new perspective requires a radical reevaluation of the civilisational narratives of the lowland states. Scott’s work on Zomia represents a new way to think of area studies that will be applicable to other runaway, fugitive, and marooned communities, be they Gypsies, Cossacks, tribes fleeing slave raiders, Marsh Arabs, or San-Bushmen.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47000763891948,"sku":"9780300169171","price":80.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/23689453482294.jpg?v=1763302958"},{"product_id":"domination-and-the-arts-of-resistance-by-james-c-scott-9780300056693","title":"Domination and the Arts of Resistance","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConfrontations between the powerless and the powerful are laden with deception—the powerless feign deference, and the powerful subtly assert their mastery. Peasants, serfs, untouchables, slaves, labourers, 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 the dominant. At the same time, the powerful also develop a private dialogue about practices and goals of their rule that cannot be openly avowed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eDomination and the Arts of Resistance\u003c\/em\u003e, the author, a social scientist, offers a discussion both of the public roles played by the powerful and powerless and the mocking, vengeful tone they display off-stage—what he terms their public and hidden transcripts. Using examples from the literature, history, and politics of cultures around the world, the author examines the many guises this interaction has taken throughout history and the tensions and contradictions it reflects.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe author describes the ideological resistance of subordinate groups—their gossip, folktales, songs, jokes, and theatre—their use of anonymity and ambiguity. He also analyzes how ruling elites attempt to convey an impression of hegemony through such devices as parades, state ceremony, and rituals of subordination and apology. Finally, he identifies—with quotations that range from the recollections of American slaves to those of Russian citizens during the beginnings of Gorbachev's glasnost campaign—the political electricity generated among oppressed groups when, for the first time, the hidden transcript is spoken directly and publicly in the face of power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47424060489964,"sku":"9780300056693","price":40.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780300056693.jpg?v=1774769290"},{"product_id":"weapons-of-the-weak-by-james-c-scott-9780300036411","title":"Weapons of the Weak","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Splendid . . . Combines the readability of \u003cem\u003eAkenfield\u003c\/em\u003e or \u003cem\u003ePig Earth\u003c\/em\u003e with an accessible and illuminating theoretical commentary.”—A.F. Robertson, \u003cem\u003eTimes Higher Education Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“\u003cem\u003eWeapons of the Weak\u003c\/em\u003e is a brilliant book, combining a sure feel for the subjective side of struggle with a deft handling of economic and political trends.”—John R. Bowen, \u003cem\u003eJournal of Peasant Studies\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“No one who wants to understand peasant society, in or out of Southeast Asia, or theories of change, should fail to read [this book].”—Daniel S. Lev, \u003cem\u003eJournal of Asian Studies\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"John Wiley and Sons Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47433298346220,"sku":"9780300036411","price":44.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780300036411.jpg?v=1774765260"},{"product_id":"in-praise-of-floods-by-james-c-scott-9780300292305","title":"In Praise of Floods","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJames C. Scott reframes rivers as alive and dynamic, revealing the consequences of treating them as resources for our profit.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e Best Book of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Informative, enjoyable, and provocative. . . . Scott's [prose] is dry, clear, and scalding with moral purpose.\" - Becca Rothfeld, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn Praise of Floods\u003c\/em\u003e presents rivers, on a long view, as alive. They are born; they change; they shift their channels; they forge new routes to the sea; they move both gradually and violently; they can teem (usually) with life; they may die a quasi-natural death; they are frequently maimed and even murdered.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is the annual flood pulse—the brief time when the river occupies the floodplain—that gives a river its vitality, but it is human engineering that kills it, suppressing the flood pulse with dams, irrigation, siltation, dikes, and levees. In demonstrating these threats to the riverine world, award-winning author James C. Scott examines the life history of a particular river, the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) of Burma, the heartland and superhighway of Burman culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eScott opens our understanding of rivers to encompass their entirety—tributaries, wetlands, floodplains, backwaters, eddies, periodic marshlands, and the assemblage of life forms dependent on rivers for their existence and well-being. For anyone interested in the Anthropocene and the Great Acceleration, rivers offer a striking example of the consequences of human intervention in trying to control and domesticate a natural process, the complexity and variability of which we barely understand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47562848665836,"sku":"9780300292305","price":30.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780300292305-in-praise-of-floods.jpg?v=1776988127"},{"product_id":"two-cheers-for-anarchism-by-james-c-scott-9780691271781","title":"Two Cheers for Anarchism","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of the world's most widely read social scientists\u003c\/b\u003e (\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e) offers his most personal and accessible book, a celebration of how ordinary people can resist oppression and injustice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eJames 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, \u003ci\u003eTwo Cheers for Anarchism\u003c\/i\u003e is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defence of an anarchist way of seeing. It provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough a wide-ranging series of memorable anecdotes and examples, the book describes an anarchist sensibility that celebrates the local knowledge, common sense, and creativity of ordinary people. The result is a kind of handbook on constructive anarchism that challenges us to radically reconsider the value of hierarchy in public and private life, from schools and workplaces to retirement homes and government itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBeginning with what Scott calls 'the law of anarchist calisthenics', an argument for law-breaking inspired by an East German pedestrian crossing, each chapter opens with a story that captures an essential anarchist truth. In the course of telling these stories, Scott touches on a wide variety of subjects: public disorder and riots, desertion, poaching, vernacular knowledge, assembly-line production, globalisation, the petty bourgeoisie, school testing, playgrounds, and the practice of historical explanation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFar from a dogmatic manifesto, \u003ci\u003eTwo Cheers for Anarchism\u003c\/i\u003e celebrates the anarchist confidence in the inventiveness and judgement of people who are free to exercise their creative and moral capacities.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47601004249324,"sku":"9780691271781","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/87395014fdbdc1b9a47a8f39697f06b6.jpg?v=1778019081"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/james-c-scott.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}