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Prof. dr. J.C. (Johannes) Breman

Emeritus professor
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Moving Matters: People, Goods, Power and Ideas
Area of expertise: work, employment and labour relations in contemporary Asia, history of colonialism, labour migration, conditions of poverty and the social question in a global perspective
Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
Postal address
  • Postbus 15509
    1001 NA Amsterdam
Contact details
  • Profile

    Jan Breman (1936) majored in the social sciences at the University of Amsterdam, specialized in South and Southeast Asian Studies and got his Ph.D. degree from the University of Amsterdam in 1970.. Having been appointed reader and then professor of comparative sociology at Erasmus University (the former Netherlands Economic School) in Rotterdam, his transfer in 1987 to Amsterdam University, to teach comparative sociology, coincided with the establishment of the post-graduate Centre for Asian Studies Amsterdam. He was Dean of CASA and co-founder (with A, de Swaan) of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research with which CASA merged, until he stepped down in September 1998. In addition he became extraordinary professor of sociology at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague but continued to be affiliated to the Amsterdam School, He was also nominated Fellow of the International Institute of Asian Studies in Leiden. Jan Breman has been visiting professor in India (Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi), in China (Xiamen University, School of Public Affairs) and in Indonesia (Agricultural University, Bogor), and has travelled widely on short-term academic visits to other Asian countries. He has carried out consultancy missions in the Asian region for ILO, UNRISD, ESCAP, Asian Development Bank, as well as for various non-government agencies located in The Netherlands or abroad and for the Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation in Bangladesh. On becoming emeritus professor in 2001, he was invited to continue his scholarly work at the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, subsequently transformed into the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research.

    Breman has supervised twenty-five ph.d. theses. Spread over a period of fifty years, Jan Breman has conducted anthropological fieldwork in India (South Gujarat), Indonesia (West Java) and subsequently also in China (Xiamen) and Pakistan (Sindh).

    His fieldwork based research has resulted in more than twenty books, published by the University of California Press, Clarendon Press, University of Cambridge Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge, Sage and Amsterdam University Press. In addition to these book formats he has published articles in many academic journals and contributed to edited volumes (for a list of major publications see below).He is on the editorial board of various professional journals: The Indian Journal of Labour Economics (Delhi), The Journal of Agrarian Change (London), The Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore), Modern Asian Studies (Cambridge), Development and Change (The Hague).

    Other links

  • Research

    Received awards

    • Edgar Graham Book Prize
    • Ridder in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw
    • honorary doctorate at the International Institute of Social Studies
  • Publications

    2023

    • Breman, J. (2023). Ethische politiek verbeeld als de christelijke beschavingsmissie: Alexander Willem Frederik Idenburg, een Nederlandse koloniaal met goede bedoelingen? Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 138(3), 63-92. https://doi.org/10.51769/bmgn-lchr.12778 [details]

    2020

    2019

    • Breman, J., & van der Linden, M. (2019). Informalizing the Economy: The Return of the Social Question on a World Scale. In M. van der Linden (Ed.), The Global History of Work: Critical Readings. - Volume 3: Labour Markets (pp. 254-271). (Critical and Primary Sources). London: Bloomsbury Academic. [details]
    • Breman, J., Harris, K., Lee, C. K., & van der Linden, M. (2019). Postscript: The Social Question in Its Global Incarnation. In J. Breman, K. Harris, C. K. Lee, & M. van der Linden (Eds.), The Social Question in the Twenty-First Century: A Global View (pp. 244-250). University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.74 [details]
    • Breman, J., Harris, K., Lee, C. K., & van der Linden, M. (2019). The Social Question All Over Again. In J. Breman, K. Harris, C. K. Lee, & M. van der Linden (Eds.), The Social Question in the Twenty-First Century: A Global View (pp. 1-22). University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.74 [details]
    • Breman, J., Harris, K., Lee, C. K., & van der Linden, M. (Eds.) (2019). The Social Question in the Twenty-First Century: A Global View. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.74 [details]

    2016

    2015

    2014

    2013

    • Breman, J. (2013). At work in the informal economy of India: a perspective from the bottom up. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. [details]
    • Breman, J. (2013). Land Flight in Sindh. Economic & Political Weekly, 48(9), 35-39. http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/2013_48/09/Land_Flight_in_Sindh.pdf [details]
    • Breman, J. (2013). The Rural-to-Urban Transformation in Pakistan: No Reprieve from Poverty and Exclusion. The Indian journal of labour economics, 56(2), 269-283. http://www.isleijle.org/ijle/Abstract.aspx?id=2449 [details]
    • Breman, J. (2013). The practice of poor relief in rural South Gujarat. In K. P. Kannan, & J. Breman (Eds.), The long road to social security: assessing the implementation of national social security initiatives for the working poor in India (pp. 293-334). Oxford University Press. [details]
    • Kannan, K. P., & Breman, J. (2013). Introduction: unto the last? In K. P. Kannan, & J. Breman (Eds.), The long road to social security: assessing the implementation of national social security initiatives for the working poor in India (pp. 1-30). Oxford University Press. [details]

    2012

    2011

    2010

    • Breman, J. (2010). Koloniaal profijt van onvrije arbeid: het Preanger stelsel van gedwongen koffieteelt op Java, 1720-1870. Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.5117/9789089642646 [details]
    • Breman, J. (2010). Outcast labour in Asia: circulation and informalization of the workforce at the bottom of the economy. (Oxford collected essays). Oxford: Oxford University Press. [details]
    • Breman, J. (2010). A poor deal. Indian Journal of Human Development, 4(1), 133-142. [details]
    • Breman, J. (2010). India's social question in a state of denial. Economic & Political Weekly, 45(23), 42-46. http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/14833.pdf [details]
    • Breman, J. (2010). Life experiences in a comparative perspective. In M. Karlekar, & R. Mukherjee (Eds.), Remembered childhood: essays in honour of André Béteille (pp. 78-90). Oxford University Press. [details]
    • Breman, J. (2010). Neo-bondage: a fieldwork-based account. International Labor and Working Class History, 78(1), 48-62. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0147547910000116 [details]
    • Breman, J. (2010). The political economy of agrarian change in India. In P. R. Brass (Ed.), Routledge handbook of South Asian politics: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal (pp. 321-336). (Routledge handbooks). Routledge. [details]
    • Breman, J. (2010). The political economy of unfree labour in South Asia: determining the nature and scale of debt bondage. The Indian journal of labour economics, 53(1), 137-160. [details]
    • Breman, J. (2010). Unfree labour in colonial Indonesia. In H. de Jonge, & T. van Meijl (Eds.), On the subject of labour: essays in memory of Frans Hüsken (pp. 68-72). In de Walvis. [details]

    2009

    2008

    • Breman, J. (2008). The Jan Breman Omnibus. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. [details]

    2014

    2013

    2009

    • Breman, J., Guérin, I., & Prakash, A. (2009). India's unfree workforce: of bondage old and new. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. [details]

    2015

    2013

    2012

    2024

    2016

    • Breman, J. C. (2016). Een kroniek van onthulling en ontkenning. De Groene Amsterdammer.

    2009

    • Breman, J. C. (2009). De onderklassen van de wereld. De Groene, 26-29.

    Prize / grant

    • Breman, J. C. (2013). Eredoctoraat School of Oriental and African Studies. Univ. of London.

    Membership / relevant position

    • Breman, J. C. (2015). Lid Advisory Board, International People's Tribunal on 1965 Crimes Against Humanity in Indonesia, Den Haag.
    • Breman, J. C. (2011). Chairperson of IREWOC (Institute for Research of Working Children), IREWOC.
    • Breman, J. C. (1987-2011). Member of Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and Humanities, KNAW.

    Media appearance

    Journal editor

    • Breman, J. C. (editor) (2011). Modern Asian Studies (Journal).
    • Breman, J. C. (editor) (2011). Indian Journal for the Study of Social Exclusion (Journal).
    • Breman, J. C. (editor) (2011). The Indian journal of labour economics (Journal).
    • Breman, J. C. (editor) (2011). Journal of Agrarian Change (Journal).
    • Breman, J. C. (editor) (2011). Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (Journal).
    • Breman, J. C. (editor) (2011). Development and Change (Journal).
    • Breman, J. C. (editor) (2010). Modern Asian Studies (Journal).
    • Breman, J. C. (editor) (2010). Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (Journal).
    • Breman, J. C. (editor) (2010). The Indian journal of labour economics (Journal).
    • Breman, J. C. (editor) (2010). Journal of Agrarian Change (Journal).
    • Breman, J. C. (editor) (2010). Development and Change (Journal).

    Talk / presentation

    • Breman, J. C. (invited speaker) (15-12-2015). keynote address Trade unionism and labour in Africa, conferentie 'Trade unionism and labour in Africa' at Afrika Studiecentrum, Leiden.
    • Breman, J. C. (invited speaker) (28-10-2015). 'Changing politics and policies', South Asia Seminar, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen.
    • Breman, J. C. (invited speaker) (27-10-2015). 'The study of pauperism in past and present', Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen.
    • Breman, J. C. (invited speaker) (9-10-2015). Public lecture 'A State in Denial', at Convention Hall, Bengaluru.
    • Breman, J. C. (invited speaker) (7-10-2015). Keynote address workshop, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.
    • Breman, J. C. (invited speaker) (19-3-2015). Globalizing labour studies, at National Labour Institute, Delhi.
    • Breman, J. C. (invited speaker) (18-3-2015). Pauperism in past and present, lecture at Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.
    • Breman, J. C. (invited speaker) (16-3-2015). Distinguished lecture - On pauperism in contemporary India, at University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad.
    • Breman, J. C. (invited speaker) (12-3-2015). 'Informal workers in the rural-urban continuum', keynote address Conference on Issues related to labour and employment in the context of the rural-urban continuum. National Institute of Rural Development., Hyderabad.
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
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