scott's account of the way social control operates relies on a pretty solid and unoriginal marxist critique of the capitalist state (e.g. bowles and gintis' correspondence theory is elaborated on at great length). where this book shines is his account of his own theories: "infrapolitics" (the way that subaltern groups have got what they wanted not through democratic institutional engines but through small acts of resistance) and his belief that the petty bourgeoisie represents a space outside the greater machinations of the state. i wish more space had been dedicated to them because reading his thoughts about education was genuinely a slog.