Johannes Cornelis "Jan" Breman (born 24 July 1936, in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

) is a Dutch sociologist and an emeritus professor of the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at

Institute of Social Studies An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ...

(ISS) on 29 October 2009. His inaugural lecture was entitled: The Great Transformation in a Globalized Perspective. He is a Fellow of the

International Institute for Asian Studies Introduction The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) is a global research institute and knowledge exchange platform, based in Leiden, the Netherlands. The Institute initiates and promotes multidisciplinary as well as inter- and tran ...

. In 1988 Breman became a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

. He was elected a member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

in 1989. He has been known for the concept "footloose labour" in India. Footloose labour consists of those proletariats who are pushed out of agriculture labour market, hence depend on casual labour. They have to engage in multiple occupations to sustain themselves. Due to rural inequality they have to do seasonal migration to well off states such as Punjab and Haryana. This class of free wage labourers, especially after mid-1990s, are called "footloose labour".

Selected works

* Breman, Jan et al. (2019).
The Social Question in the Twenty-First Century: A Global View
'. California: University of California Press. . * Breman, Jan (2013). ''At work in the informal economy of India. A perspective from the bottom up''. New Delhi, Oxford University Press.

References

External links

* ( 4:39 about

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Tariq Ali Tariq Ali (;; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and co ...

Discussing Jan Breman's book, talking about the poverty and migration in India. 1936 births Living people Dutch sociologists Members of Academia Europaea Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam {{Netherlands-academic-bio-stub