Book reviews 183

price, are dealt with a softer and superficially complex subject area of sustainable develop-
less compelling narrative. ment, reproducing its contradictions, conflicts
That leads to my main reservation in the use and crises in a scholarly and studied manner.
of the book for students to develop a conception
of sustainable development to support universi- Paul Benneworth
ties’ missions to develop well-informed citizens. Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies
The book excels in supporting the understanding Newcastle University
of the methodologies through which particular
taxes are derived, or the approximate costs of Harvey, D. 1996: Geography, justice and the nature of
particular economic developments are calcu- difference. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
lated. However, two of the three economic chap-
ters appear like a mathematics or engineering Scott, James 1998: Seeing like a state: how certain
text book, using a language of ‘propositions’ and schemes to improve the human condition have
‘theorems’ that overlook the high degrees of failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ix
uncertainty inherent in any developing socioeco- 445 pp. US$37.50 cloth. ISBN 0 300 07016 0.
nomic system. This situation implicitly favours
these mathematical models over more narrative This book focuses on the vexing question of why
analyses of geopolitical structures within which many state-planned development programmes
locally rooted sustainable development is being have failed. Scott weaves together issues of epis-
forced to exist. Viewed in its totality, however, temology and practice to explain how state adher-
the book stands as a firmly worded critique of ence to high-modernist ideals and imperialist
the practices of the international institutions and planning techniques have thwarted development
nongovernmental organizations who apply the efforts in such diverse contexts as urban redesign
abstracted prescriptions of economists without in Paris, collectivization in the Soviet Union,
due consideration for what Rao terms the ‘nega- Tanzania and Ethiopia, and the spread of
tive externalities’, the incidental impacts of modernist farming techniques. While Scott char-
particular policy measures. acterizes state planning generally as bureaucratic,
Although these are criticisms that could be large-scale and homogenizing, he focuses on why
levelled at the book, this should not undermine certain projects fail. In the cases presented, Scott
the fact that the text provides a very thorough theorizes that weak civil society unable to resist
treatment of a very complex issue, and uses a excessively modernist state programmes
contemporary subject to illustrate the way that inevitably results in developmental crisis.
economic thinking is continually developing in Scott argues that state-led initiatives, charac-
response to societal and political pressures. terized by modernist aesthetics and techno-scien-
There is an interesting subtext to the book in tific ideals, in practice render nature and society
terms of the geopolitics of international develop- legible and controllable through categorization,
ment, and behind the static language of econo- mapping and reorganization. Such projects tend
mists there is a fascinating account of how so to value the appearance of order, oversimplify
little progress has been made in monitoring, social and biophysical complexity, and promote
evaluating and implementing sustainable poli- the application of uniform solutions to diverse
cies in the developed and developing world ecologies, practices or geographies. Chapter 1
today. The huge amount of reference material, examines scientific agro-forestry in Germany,
including an analysis of the crucial Rio Declara- detailing how old-growth forests were catego-
tion (Agenda 21) and several timelines for the rized by tree size, systematically harvested and
development of international treaties, declara- replanted neatly in rows. This example of how
tions and protocols, contribute to the value of the scientific planning compromised species diversity
book to the student and academic alike. Indeed, and forest resiliency becomes an analogy for the
there are so many sections of value that it is diffi- social projects narrated in the book. In the case of
cult in a relatively short book review to cover Ujamaa, Tanzanian planners promoted an ideal
both its’ strengths and weaknesses and convey village arrangement, with 1000 inhabitants and a
the strong sense of value of material contained in standard compound size of 1000 m2 (p. 249). For
the book. Rao has produced a work that is a clear Scott, this form-fit approach promotes standard-
reflection of the state-of-the-art of the highly ization at the expense of local knowledge and

Downloaded from pdj.sagepub.com at DEAKIN UNIV LIBRARY on May 9, 2015

specificity. In agriculture, Scott details how the Though Scott provides a critique of high-
uniform application of chemicals and hybrid modernism and large-scale development schema,
seeds, ignoring soil complexity or other contex- he fails to theorize the nature and form of states.
tual factors, simplifies agro-ecological diversity, An implicit theory of the state that emerges is a
devalues traditional practices, and ultimately singular, purposeful actor defined by high-
compromises the productivity and sustainability modernist ideology, and undifferentiated by
of agro-systems. The central concepts of legibility history or geography. The state in Scott’s analysis
and simplification are also applied to urban is essentially the same whether describing agri-
spaces (resulting in engineered spaces devoid of culture in the Andes, Ujamaa in Tanzania or urban
character), populations (rendering society legible planning in France. What unifies states for Scott is
for tax collection or military control) and not their form, but rather their inflexible high-
language (creating common linguistic systems for modernist faith and their persistent intent on
commerce or nation-building). In all cases, Scott controlling space, nature and populations. It is not
argues that actual conditions were ignored and always states that are agents of oversimplifica-
societal and ecological factors were oversimpli- tion, nor is injustice absent from local scales.
fied, with tragic consequences for people and Paralleling the projects detailed that tend to
ecologies. ignore local complexity and specificity, Scott
Finally, Scott posits an essential contradiction undervalues contradictions within states as well
between state vision and local knowledges as a as the historical and geographical specificity of
common feature of these failures. He distin- state forms, goals or ideologies.
guishes two types of knowledge, the abstracted Further, the projects outlined are portrayed as
and simplified techne, and the practical and absolute failures, without recognizing contradic-
complex metis. Scott associates techne with state tory and complex outcomes. In Tanzania’s
institutional forms, which characteristically Ujamaa, Scott assumes a modernist state logic
neglect local complexities. This implies that plan- (questionable given the anti-modernist tendencies
ners are unable to anticipate social and ecological of Nyerere’s populism) and focuses narrowly on
factors that may frustrate development projects, the negative outcomes, ignoring social and
often undermining practices particularly suited to health-related improvements associated with
local histories and conditions. villagization. Indicators show considerable
While we share a commitment to critical analy- success in delivery of education, health and other
sis of development processes, we are struck by services, which should be recognized. Scott
Scott’s over-simplification of the very objects of consistently fails to acknowledge the contradic-
study themselves – the states, the projects and tory needs, goals and priorities inherent in any
development ideals. Much of the weakness of approach to development.
Scott’s analysis stems from his reliance on clearly In addition to the problems of homogenizing
defined binaries, such as the state verses civil soci- across states and branding projects as singular
ety or techne verses metis. Essentially, Scott views failures, Scott overstates his critique of techno-
civil society as the seat of complexity and scientific knowledge as detrimental to local
dynamism with the state at the other pole as the complexity, without noting positive attributes. To
site of irrationality, inflexibility, and imposition. provide just one example, Scott’s portrayal of
Despite his claims to the contrary, Scott’s frame- homogenizing practices in agro-ecology is incon-
work supports an oversimplistic distinction that sistent with the use of Geographic Information
romanticizes the peasantry, demonizes state Systems in precision agriculture. These tech-
agents and practices and praises local knowledge. niques consider soil diversity and variable crop
Couldn’t a state practitioner learn from experien- needs at metre-by-metre scales for the application
tial knowledge, also exemplifying metis? If states, of fertilizers and pesticides. Interestingly, in
development projects and forms of knowledge discussing the lower Shire project, Scott some-
are, instead, defined by their heterogeneity, multi- what contradictorily blames its failure on the lack
plicity and inherent contradictions across time, of detailed maps of soils, rainfall patterns or
through space or across agencies, then the state topography (p. 229).
‘project’ that Scott endeavours to uncover It is important to consider how the analysis
becomes immensely more complex and difficult would be different with an understanding of
to assess. states that takes into account contradictions and

Downloaded from pdj.sagepub.com at DEAKIN UNIV LIBRARY on May 9, 2015

heterogeneity within and across states and actors. uct of a series of disruptions that ‘promote notions
For example, is Scott’s discussion of modernist of paradise lost and regained’ but, rather, as a
agriculture as applicable in the USA as it is in the series of indeterminate ‘discordant harmonies’
developing world? What are examples of success- between state and society. The prime focus of the
ful development projects (many of which have book is not, therefore, to trace environmental
been high-modernist) and how does this allow us change, but to unpack aspects of statemaking,
to understand failure in more complex ways? defined, following Foucault, as ‘forms and legiti-
What is the relationship between fragmented, mations of government and governmentality’ (p.
historically disjointed or contradictory state 5). He seeks to analyse the ‘ideological and orga-
ideologies or programmes and how does this nizational power of the central government to
relate to success or failure? If we re-centre the penetrate society, exact compliance, and invoke
analysis on these questions, it becomes imperative commitment’ (p. 5). In tracing the relationship
not to attribute success or failure generally, but to between society and state Sivaramakrishnan
understand how and why modernist projects vary seeks to pay particular attention to how processes
in form, content and outcome, precisely owing to of knowledge acquisition and dissemination and
the historical and geographical specificities and notions of expertise are deployed at various
diversity of state forms. Despite these shortcom- spatial scales and how ‘everyday forms of power
ings, Scott is a powerful writer and provides an are constantly reformulated in the light of experi-
intriguing and relevant account of state-led ence’ (p. 6). He is thus interested in ‘the develop-
efforts, making this work important reading for ment of forms of managerial consciousness and
anyone interested in development. practices in their political, cultural and material
settings’ (p. 20).
Leila Harris, Tom Buller and Abdi Samatar Nevertheless, Modern forests is also a detailed
University of Minnesota historical narrative that draws upon a range of
archival sources to describe changes in forests and
agrarian societies in eastern India. In the first 90
Sivaramakrishnan, K. 1999: Modern forests: years of colonial rule in Bengal Sivaramakrishnan
statemaking and environmental change in colonial argues that conquest in these forest frontiers – or
eastern India. Stanford, CT: Stanford University zones of anomaly – was largely an uncertain
Press. xxvii + 341 pp. US$49.50 cloth. ISBN enterprise. The British saw Bengal as being largely
0–8047–3563–8. a refuge for politically recalcitrant and stubbornly
backward people. However, stable representa-
This book represents the culmination of Sivara- tions of the landscapes of Bengal could not be
makrishnan’s historical anthropology of forestry established and, as a consequence, an extremely
in colonial eastern India. His work is particularly varied pattern of control was instigated. During
important as it goes, both empirically and concep- the last 90 years of colonial rule, meanwhile, a
tually, far beyond the many previous accounts of more formal development and conservation
forest management in colonial India. In particular, administration was constructed based upon scien-
he critiques prosopographical approaches such as tific planning and the codification of laws.
Grove’s Green imperialism (1995) that identify key However, Sivaramakrishnan questions the
agents but neglect the power of discursive forma- received divide ‘between universal western
tions. He also takes great pains to avoid any form modernity and its indigenous Other’, and argues
of generalization, homogenization or reduction that forest management in India was the product
that has marred previous historical research on of ‘specific historical experiences and less the
forestry in India. Ultimately, he tries to steer a result of imported European models’ (p. 146).
path between cultural geographies that focus on Being a geographer myself, it is interesting
representations at the expense of ecological how much attention Sivaramakrishnan pays to
processes and environmental histories that concepts of space and place. He argues that
emphasize the ecological at the expense of the ‘spatial history can begin to overcome the prob-
cultural, in his attempt to write a theoretically lem of diffuseness in colonial discourse theory’
informed regional historical geography. (p. 80). It is perhaps a rather obvious point but it
Sivaramakrishnan argues that environmental is still one that is often neglected, namely that we
change should not simply be viewed as the prod- need to examine how colonial projects were actu-

Downloaded from pdj.sagepub.com at DEAKIN UNIV LIBRARY on May 9, 2015