Currents of Inequality: Studies in Environmental Injustice

High Modernism and the Violence of Development

James C. Scott presents a critique of “high modernist” ideology and the failure of large-scale, top-down state projects intended to radically transform and improve nature and society. Scott argues that such projects, driven by an overconfidence in scientific and technical knowledge, often ignore the complex, practical knowledge (metis) of the local populations they affect. This oversight leads to unintended consequences, including environmental degradation and the displacement of expendable subjects.

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