Seeing Like a State
Seeing Like a State James Scott The forest as a habitat disappears and is replaced by the forest as an economic resource to be managed efficiently and prof it ably.(13) natural resources — drawing on Heiegger’s essay on Technology -> How does standardized testing shape our view of education? “legible forest” 18 Legible is the central adjective of this book; implies textuality. visible sign of well-managed forest “the regularity and neatness of its appearance.” (18) -> to be inspected. Like 1984. “it illustrates the dangers of dismembering an exception ally complex and poorly understood set of relations and processes in order to isolate a single element of instrumental value.” (21)
METHODOLOGY metis Research method: rather than trying to isolate variables, identify criteria that encourage flourishing complexity and diversity.
“State agents have no interest—nor should they—in describing an entire social reality, any more than the scientific forester has an interest in describing the ecology of a forest in detail. Their abstractions and simplifications are disciplined by a small number of objectives” (23)
27-29 politics of measurement (See Kula for more)
The simplification of measures, however, depended on that other revolutionary political simplification of the modern era: the concept of a uniform, homogeneous citizenship. (32) -> France does not celebrate multiculturalism
In the end, the centralizing state succeeded in imposing a novel and (from the center) legible property system, which, as had the work of the scientific foresters, not only radically abridged the practices that the system described but at the same time transformed those practices to align more closely with their shorthand, schematic reading. (33)
Administratively, of course, such a cacophony of local property reg ulations would be a nightmare. The nightmare is experienced not by those whose particular practices are being represented but by those state officials who aspire to a uniform, homogeneous, national admin istrative code. (35)
—> Code reifies even more efficiently than print, even if it is not as expressive. Abstraction means legibility to outsiders; the concrete is redefined in terms of its abstraction. (You are not a Gadget)
To codify local practices was thus a profoundly political act. (37)
The history of property in this sense has meant the inex orable incorporation of what were once thought of as free gifts of na ture: forests, game, wasteland, prairie, subsurface minerals, water and watercourses, air rights (rights to the air above buildings or surface area), breathable air, and even genetic sequences, into a property re gime. (39) -> To be extended to our attention, the contents of our minds, and our identities -> People argue that we have an obligation not to use adblock software; that media outlets have the right to some fraction of our attention in exchange for their content. -> This is why the secretary general has all the power. -> Explains the source of power of bureaucracies
Positive feedback: When we have a social arrangement in which education maps to employment, wealth and social status, the “one big thing” form of knowledge is reified in degrees, while “many little things” of practical and experiential knowledge have no representation, and thus no value. We imprint the “one big thing” pattern on people through education and reward those who see (impose) this structure in (on) the world.
real life is reduced to “annotations and marginalia” (46)
The cityscape of Bruges in 1500 could be said to privilege local knowledge over outside knowledge, including that of external political authorities (53)
“Long before the invention of bulldozers, the Italian military engineer developed, through his professional spe cialization in destruction, a bulldozing habit of mind: one that sought to clear the ground of encumbrances, so as to make a clear beginning on its own inflexible mathematical lines.” (quoting Mumford, 56)
The point is made in today’s news—suspects of the French bombing were located in St. Denis Now the conversation is about universal surveillance and encryption
This spatial fact is perhaps inherent in the process of urban or architectural planning itself, a process that involves minia turization and scale models upon which patron and planner gaze down, exactly as if they were in a helicopter.13There is, after all, no other way of visually imagining what a large-scale construction project will look like when it is completed except by a miniaturization of this kind. It follows, I believe, that such plans, which have the scale of toys, are judged for their sculptural properties and visual order, often from a perspective that no or very few human observers will ever replicate. (57-58) -> Can we develop different tools to allow different representations, and thus different design?
So let’s apply this thinking to education. The Common Core (and its assessments) may be seen as a cadastral map of the educational experience and achievement. What could new forms of assessment do? They might allow more flexible sense-making. The flexibility of their abstractions allows different representations and vantage points; allows sense to be made of evolutionary (non-closed-form) systems. This might result in more complete control. It might also result in less distance between the abstraction and the reality, and thus do less harm in the process of imposing interpretation. Would this be good or bad on the whole? Who knows. -> DiSessa reflects on the nature of the computational medium. It is a medium of motion, of dynamic systems.
Legibility is a tool of state control which has the side effect of reifying its abstractions.
(I could start off my response with this summary!)
I am suggesting that many state activities aim at transforming the population, space, and nature under their jurisdiction into the closed systems that offer no surprises and that can best be observed and controlled. (82) -> As this is antithetical to my vision of education, I am opposed to a centralized educational system.
Legible is the central adjective of this book; implies textuality. Maybe new media has a possibility here? Ultimately, I think my practice as a researcher will be grounded in faith. The ultimate judge of an education is its subject; the criteria for its evaluation No external accountability We live in an age of educational accountability; where nothing is real unless it is measured. To Inherent to metis is its groundedness in the situated and specific. What evidence could be given? If we Our education policy must be an act of faith. Not accountability! What could new forms of assessment do? They might allow more flexible sense-making. The flexibility of their abstractions allows different representations and vantage points; allows sense to be made of evolutionary (non-closed-form) systems. This might result in more complete control. It might also result in less distance between the abstraction and the reality, and thus do less harm in the process of imposing interpretation. Would this be good or bad on the whole? Who knows. -> DiSessa reflects on the nature of the computational medium. It is a medium of motion, of dynamic systems. —> Code reifies even more efficiently than print, even if it is not as expressive. Abstraction means legibility to outsiders; the concrete is redefined in terms of its abstraction. (You are not a Gadget) The history of property in this sense has meant the inexorable incorporation of what were once thought of as free gifts of na ture: forests, game, wasteland, prairie, subsurface minerals, water and watercourses, air rights (rights to the air above buildings or surface area), breathable air, and even genetic sequences, into a property re gime. (39) -> To be extended to our attention, the contents of our minds, and our identities -> People argue that we have an obligation not to use adblock software; that media outlets have the right to some fraction of our attention in exchange for their content. -> This is why the secretary general has all the power. -> Explains the source of power of bureaucracies -> I worry about MMLA
Google organizing the world’s information.
Think about how to treat models.