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The Hunger Games: Where the Districts Have “Order” Because We Can Count Twelve of Them

In his work Seeing Like a State, James Scott makes the observation that any state or governing body requires some extent of social organization. High levels of migration and complex city landscapes can make collecting taxes or policing populations extremely difficult. While modern civilizations with civil engineers, extensive personal records, and national languages have been…

Order and Chaos

The law of disorder, which Albert Einstein calls the most basic law of science, states that everything, when left on its own, leads to chaos. The state has an important job to try to counteract this occurrence by new reconstructions and regulations in many realms of life. In Seeing Like a State, James Scott discusses…

Divergent and Punish

From surnames to street addresses, the modern state has increasingly streamlined the processes of governance. Scott argues that systemic state interventions in issues of public health, taxation, or safety can be anywhere from fatal to lifesaving for citizens (78). However, at what point does a state’s attempts at simplifying these interventions deteriorate one’s identity rather…

Is the State really the problem ?

After the terrorist attack on Paris in November 13th the Primer Minister Manuel Valls declared that “security is the first of the liberties” ; as it first appears with this quote, the main objective of the State is to prevent violence against its citizens. But in order to do that, the State has to commit…

The State of the Wizarding World (Or, Why Voldemort’s Attempts to Make the Wizarding World Legible Failed)

During Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, one views a chaotic Wizarding World that is struggling against Voldemort’s rule. Luckily, Harry Potter succeeded in killing Voldemort, thus ending his reign over the Ministry of Magic. However, one has to wonder what would have happened if Harry wasn’t successful. Would Voldemort have stayed in power? Would…

Welcome to the Jungle

In a world fascinated by order and discipline, is it any surprise that there is a continuing battle to modify society to represent these characteristics? However, in doing so, what is the price that we, as participants in this type of order, pay? While reading the excerpts from Seeing Like a State by James C….

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Welcome to Political Sociology!