An Interview with James C. Scott

Harry G. West is Professor of Anthropology, and Chair of the Food Studies Centre, at SOAS, University of London. His published works include Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique (University of Chicago Press, 2005), Ethnographic Sorcery (University of Chicago Press, 2007), and Food between the Country and the City: Ethnographies of a Changing Global Foodscape, co-edited with Nuno Domingos and José Manuel Sobral (Bloomsbury, 2014). His current research focuses on artisan cheese, the discourse of “terroir,” and the global market niche in “heritage foods.”

Celia Plender is an ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council)–funded doctoral student in Social Anthropology at SOAS, University of London. Her research focuses on the social dynamics and transformative potential of consumer food co-ops in the UK. She is particularly interested in their role in relation to issues such as food poverty and food democracy. Celia is also a trained chef and professional food writer who has regularly contributed to publications including Time Out London magazine.

James C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology and founding director of the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University. Scott has been a key figure in Southeast Asian Studies and in the comparative study of agrarian societies and peasant politics. His best-known works include The Moral Economy of the Peasant (Yale University Press, 1976), Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (Yale University Press, 1980), Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (Yale University Press, 1998), and The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (Yale University Press, 2008).

Harry G. West is Professor of Anthropology, and Chair of the Food Studies Centre, at SOAS, University of London. His published works include Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique (University of Chicago Press, 2005), Ethnographic Sorcery (University of Chicago Press, 2007), and Food between the Country and the City: Ethnographies of a Changing Global Foodscape, co-edited with Nuno Domingos and José Manuel Sobral (Bloomsbury, 2014). His current research focuses on artisan cheese, the discourse of “terroir,” and the global market niche in “heritage foods.”

Celia Plender is an ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council)–funded doctoral student in Social Anthropology at SOAS, University of London. Her research focuses on the social dynamics and transformative potential of consumer food co-ops in the UK. She is particularly interested in their role in relation to issues such as food poverty and food democracy. Celia is also a trained chef and professional food writer who has regularly contributed to publications including Time Out London magazine.

James C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology and founding director of the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University. Scott has been a key figure in Southeast Asian Studies and in the comparative study of agrarian societies and peasant politics. His best-known works include The Moral Economy of the Peasant (Yale University Press, 1976), Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (Yale University Press, 1980), Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (Yale University Press, 1998), and The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (Yale University Press, 2008).