83,050
edits
Informal systems: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| Line 7: | Line 7: | ||
But a model only models what it can model. | But a model only models what it can model. | ||
In {{br|Seeing Like A State}}, {{Author|James C. Scott}} describes this is the problem of [[legibility]] — because a simplistic model | In {{br|Seeing Like A State}}, {{Author|James C. Scott}} describes this is the problem of [[legibility]] — because a simplistic model can’t adequately react to the nuances of an autonomous organic network, political administrations oblige their populations to organise themselves to best fit the model rather than having the model fit ''them''. The model itself, by its existence, queers the pitch, skews incentives. People optimise for the model, often undermining the model’s original goals — tax planning, right? They fill in windows, leave their chimneys unfinished to avoid paying taxes calculated on the number of windows, or payable upon completion of structures. | ||
Thus, a model is not just an inadequate representation of how a system behaves; it is a politically-enforced model that ''corrupts'' the behaviour of the system in itself.<ref>{{Author|Jane Jacobs}} makes the same observation about the modernist city planners of the 1940s and 1950s.</ref> | Thus, a model is not just an inadequate representation of how a system behaves; it is a politically-enforced model that ''corrupts'' the behaviour of the system in itself.<ref>{{Author|Jane Jacobs}} makes the same observation about the modernist city planners of the 1940s and 1950s.</ref> | ||