Seeing Like a State
James C. Scott's Seeing Like a State critiques high-modernist planning and the tendency of large institutions to impose simplified schemes on complex societies. Through historical case studies, Scott shows how top-down standardisation can erase local knowledge and provoke resistance.
The book highlights the importance of legibility, incentives, and the messy reality of implementation. Its insights help strategists understand how dominant organisations co-opt local practices or why centralised initiatives often clash with grassroots dynamics.