When 8850 Form Governing 2016-2023

Welcome to the Macmillan report I'm Marilyn Wilkes your host and our guest is James Scott Stirling professor of political science professor of anthropology and co-director of the agrarian Studies program at Yale University the author of several books including seeing like a state professor Scott's research concerns political economy comparative agrarian societies peasant politics Southeast Asia theories of class relations and anarchism today we'll talk with Professor Scott about his newest book the art of not being governed it's the first ever examination of the volumes of literature on state making that evaluates why people would deliberately remain stateless welcome professor Scott happy to be here let's begin with an overview of your book tell us about it the book is a study of perhaps 100 million people who live in the Highland areas between Southeast Asia China and India so this is an area above Oh 200 250 meters in the highlands of Vietnam all of Laos little corner of Cambodia northern Thailand northern Burma the southern large southern provinces of China Yunnan guanxi and Guo Jo and also northeastern India and these are this is an area where I argue these hundred million or so people who speak many different languages who belong to many different ethnic groups they are often seen as primitive people who have always stayed who have never been in a sense touched by States my argument is that these people for the last two thousand years have been running away from States from taxes from disease from Wars from conscription and overtime they had moved into the hills as states have displaced them the Chinese stayed in particular and that they have become ethnic groups in the hills so they're not primitive people there are people who have chosen to move to...