Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

Compulsory ujamaa villages in Tanzania, collectivization in Russia, Le Corbusier’s urban planning theory realized in Brasilia, the Great Leap Forward in China, agricultural “modernization” in the Tropics—the twentieth century has been racked by grand utopian schemes that have inadvertently brought death and disruption to millions. Why do well-intentioned plans for improving the human condition go tragically awry?

In this wide-ranging and original book, James C. Scott analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields. Centrally managed social plans misfire, Scott argues, when they impose schematic visions that do violence to complex interdependencies that are not—and cannot—be fully understood. Further, the success of designs for social organization depends upon the recognition that local, practical knowledge is as important as formal, epistemic knowledge. The author builds a persuasive case against “development theory” and imperialistic state planning that disregards the values, desires, and objections of its subjects. He identifies and discusses four conditions common to all planning disasters: administrative ordering of nature and society by the state; a “high-modernist ideology” that places confidence in the ability of science to improve every aspect of human life; a willingness to use authoritarian state power to effect large- scale interventions; and a prostrate civil society that cannot effectively resist such plans.

Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge

In this intelligently argued and principled book, internationally renowned Third World environmentalist Vandana Shiva exposes the latest frontier of the North’s ongoing assault against the South’s biological and other resources. Since the land, the forests, the oceans, and the atmosphere have already been colonized, eroded, and polluted, she argues, Northern capital is now carving out new colonies to exploit for gain: the interior spaces of the bodies of women, plants and animals.

Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development

In this pioneering work, Vandana Shiva looks at the history of development and progress, stripping away the neutral language of science to reveal third-world development policy as the global twin of the industrial revolution.

As Shiva makes clear, the way this development paradigm is being implemented—through violence against nature and women—threatens survival itself. She focuses on how rural Indian women experience and perceive the causes and effects of ecological destruction, and how they conceive of and initiate processes to stop the destruction and begin regeneration. As the world continues to follow destructive paths of development, Shiva’s Staying Alive is a fiercely relevant book that positions women not solely as survivors of the crisis, but as the source of crucial insights and visions to guide our struggle.

Vandana Shiva is the author of many books, including Staying Alive, Earth Democracy, and Soil Not Oil. She is a leader in the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) and the Slow Food movement.

“Secrets of the Soil Sociobiome” – Dr. Christine Jones

March 30th 2021
Dr. Christine Jones presents “Secrets of the Soil Sociobiome”

Links to articles mentioned in the Q&A are found below
1. Re-visioning soil foodwebs

Editorial by Mark Bradford, published in the Journal of Soil Biology & Biochemistry (2016). There are 14 other articles linked to this.

https://bradfordlab.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/bradford-m-a-2016-re-visioning-soil-food-webs-soil-biology-biochemistry-102-1-3.pdf

2. Techniques for assessing functional diversity in soils can be found in section 1.6 of the following article, entitled ‘Microbial Signaling in Plant—Microbe Interactions and Its Role on Sustainability of Agroecosystems’

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313731425_Microbial_Signaling_in_Plant-Microbe_Interactions_and_Its_Role_on_Sustainability_of_Agroecosystems

3. Enhancement of drought tolerance in crops by plant growth promoting rhizobacteria

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0944501315300380?via%3Dihub

4. The following article is also illuminating ….

Rolfe, S.A, Griffiths, J, Ton, J. (2019). Crying out for help with root exudates: adaptive mechanisms by which stressed plants assemble health-promoting soil microbiomes. Curr Opin Microbiol. 49:73-82. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2019.10.003.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1369527419300578?via%3Dihub

How to Grow a Planet

Professor Iain Stewart tells a stunning new story about our planet. He reveals how the greatest changes to the Earth have been driven, above all, by plants

The Secret Language of Bacteria – An ASM “Microbes After Hours” Event

No bacterium lives alone — it is constantly encountering members of its own species as well as other kinds of bacteria and diverse organisms like viruses, fungi, plants and animals. To navigate a complex world, microbes use chemical signals to sense and communicate with one another.

Live streamed on Monday, January 28th, 2013, from 6-7:30 p.m. at ASM’s headquarters, 1752 N St., NW, Washington, D.C.

Dr. Bonnie Bassler, Princeton University

Bonnie Bassler Ph.D. is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Squibb Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. The research in her laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms that bacteria use for intercellular communication. This process is called quorum sensing. Bassler’s research is paving the way to the development of novel therapies for combating bacteria by disrupting quorum-sensing-mediated communication. Dr. Bassler was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2002. She was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology in 2002 and made a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2004. Dr. Bassler was the President of the American Society for Microbiology in 2010-2011; she is currently the Chair of the American Academy of Microbiology Board of Governors. She is also a member of the National Science Board and was nominated to that position by President Barak Obama. The Board oversees the NSF and prioritizes the nation’s research and educational priorities in science, math and engineering.

Dr. Steven Lindow, University of California, Berkeley

Steven Lindow Ph.D. is a Professor at the University of California, Berkley where his research focuses on various aspects of the interaction of bacteria with the surface and interior of plants. Dr. Lindow’ s lab uses a variety of molecular and microscopy-based methods to study the ecology of bacterial epiphytes that live on the surface of plants as well as certain bacteria that are vascular pathogens of plants. They also study bacteria that live in and on plants that are fostered by consumption of the alkaloids produced by endophytic fungi. The longer-term goal of their research is to improve plants’ productivity by achieving control of plant diseases through altering the microbial communities in and on plants. Dr. Lindow is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and was elected to fellowship in both the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1999.

The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food

Barber explores the evolution of American food from the ‘first plate,’ or industrially-produced, meat-heavy dishes, to the ‘second plate’ of grass-fed meat and organic greens, and says that both of these approaches are ultimately neither sustainable nor healthy. Instead, Barber proposes Americans should move to the ‘third plate,’ a cuisine rooted in seasonal productivity, natural livestock rhythms, whole-grains, and small portions of free-range meat.

The Diversity of Life

In this book a master scientist tells the story of how life on earth evolved. Edward O. Wilson eloquently describes how the species of the world became diverse and why that diversity is threatened today as never before. A great spasm of extinction — the disappearance of whole species — is occurring now, caused this time entirely by humans. Unlike the deterioration of the physical environment, which can be halted, the loss of biodiversity is a far more complex problem — and it is irreversible. Defining a new environmental ethic, Wilson explains why we must rescue whole ecosystems, not only individual species. He calls for an end to conservation versus development arguments, and he outlines the massive shift in priorities needed to address this challenge. No writer, no scientist, is more qualified than Edward O. Wilson to describe, as he does here, the grandeur of evolution and what is at stake.

Permaculture Two: Practical Design for Town and Country in Permanent Agriculture

Permaculture Two delves deeper into the concept of “consciously designed agricultural systems.” Author, Bill Mollison, describes new approaches and solutions that have evolved around the world. Ways in which plants can modify climate and many forms of pollution are discussed. Highly productive, low-energy systems, are made clear, in this fascinating book that offers some concrete solutions for saving Mother Earth.

“…If there is a single claim, that I could make, in order to distinguish Permaculture from other systems of agriculture, with the notable exception of keyline concepts, it is that Permaculture is primarily a consciously designed agricultural system … a system that combines landscape design with perennial plants and animals to make a safe and sustainable resource for town and country. A truly appropriate technology giving high yields for low energy inputs, and using only human skill and intellect to achieve a stable resource of great complexity and stability.”

“Permaculture Two is about design, not gardening or livestock per se but as elements in a system intended to serve man, and the ends of good ecology … Good teachers have nothing to give but enthusiasm to learn; they cannot with the best will in the world, give their students knowledge. Thus it is ‘how’ to design, rather than designing your site which I am attempting here …”

“… both individual and competitive enterprise, and ‘free’ energy have faiIed us. Society is in a mess; obesity in the west is balanced by famine in the third world. Petrol is running out yet freeways are still being built. Against such universal insanity the only response is to gather together a few friends and commence to build the alternative on a philosophy of individual responsibility for community survival.”

Contents
Design in Landscape
Soil Improvement
Broadscale Techniques
Design for Difficult Climates
Structures
Waterworks
Free Range Poultry Design
Permaculture and Community

Solidarity Session #11 – Indigenous thinking with Tyson Yunkaporta

Chat with Tyson Yunkaporta – author, academic, maker, and Indigenous thinker of the Apalech clan in North Queensland. We talk about the need for Indigenous thinking in our food systems, decolonising agriculture, and how non-Indigenous growers and eaters can work in solidarity with First Peoples.

Tyson’s work examines global systems from an Indigenous perspective. It explores how we we learn, look at, and talk about patterns of creation, and how we can learn to live within those patterns again.

We talk to Tyson about what this means for the food sovereignty movement – which itself was born out of Indigenous and peasant struggles, and in which advocating for the rights and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples is a core principle. We explore how we can build solidarity-based communities that respect and work with Indigenous knowledges, and build food systems based around those principles.