Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali (Paperback)

by J. Stephen Lansing (Author) "IN THE YEAR 1938, on the date the Balinese call Galungan when the spirits of the ancestors are believed to descend into the temples, an..." (more)
Key Phrases: weir shrine, regional water temples, sedahan agung, Jero Gde, Temple of the Crater Lake, Green Revolution (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
A brilliant study of how ancient the social and technical aspects of water management systems in Bali, inextricably bound with nature and religion, were undermined by the Green Revolution in the 1970s. Recommended.

Review
[A]n enjoyable and stimulating book.
(Geoffrey Samuel Journal of Asian Studies )

Priests and Programmers is written with admirable clarity and should be of interest . . . to anybody working on applied social research.
(Michael Hitchcock Contemporary South Asia )

[B]rilliant and delightful. . . . [N]ot only has [Lansing] written a superb book, but he has contributed materially and humanely to the quality of life of the people he has studied. Too few scholars can make this claim.
(Bryan Pfaffenberger Technology and Culture ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (June 5, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 069102863X
• ISBN-13: 978-0691028637
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,227,638 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vital coverage of development, technology, society, states, January 22, 1998

By	Descartes "It Stands to Reason" (Irvine, CA) - See all my reviews

Lansing shows, through Balinese irrigation, that technology is simultaneously social and political, but often not in the ways imagined by Western academics and development experts. A dispersed system of water temples and priests successfully managed the irrigation of multiple valleys and plots through a process in which ritual served the regulatory function of feedback. Development projects decoupled the elements of the system and led to declining yields and increased pest damage. A computer simulation of the system was eventually developed, which effectively translated the system functions into a media that development experts could understand, and led to repairs to the damage done to agriculture following the implementation of Green Revolution techniques, revealing the role of ideology in presumably technical knowledge. The study also disproves Wittfogel's hypothesis that "oriental despotism" or extremely hierarchical and centralized states grew out of the expansion and control of irrigation systems. Highly recommended.

2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where the Green Revolution failed, golf may succeed, October 29, 1998

By A Customer

A brilliant study of how the ancient social and technical aspects of water management systems in Bali, inextricably bound with nature and religion, undermined the Green Revolution in the 1980s. Highly recommended