Alf Gunvald Nilsen
Post doctor
Department of Sociology
Homepage: http://uib.academia.edu/AlfGunvaldNilsen
Title: Post doctor
Phone: +47 55 58 91 41
E-mail: Alf.Nilsen@sos.uib.no
Visiting address: Rosenbergsgt. 39
Social movements, neoliberalism and “democratic deepening” in the global South:
With a particular focus on the relationship between social movements and the state in postcolonial India, and the ways in and extent to which popular mobilization has contributed to the empowerment of subaltern groups in India.
Critical development research
With a particular focus on how structures of power and processes of resistance and accommodation shape the direction of developmental trajectories and the meaning of development discourses, across spatial scales from the global to the local.
The political economy of capitalist development
With a particular focus on epochal shifts in capitalism, especially accumulation strategies and forms of state, and how these shifts relate to elite and popular mobilization in both the global North and the global South.
Social movement theory and research
With a particular focus on the analysis of processes of collective learning in social movements, participatory approaches to the theory and methodology of social movement research, and Marxist approaches to social movement studies.
Education:
BA Hons - Development Studies, University of East Anglia (2001)
Cand. Mag. - Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Bergen (2001)
PhD, Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Bergen (2006
PUBLICATIONS
NB! Most of my publications are available on http://uib.academia.edu/AlfGunvaldNilsen/Papers
Single Authored Books:
Dispossession and Resistance in India: The River and the Rage, London: Routledge (2010).
Co-Edited Books:
(With Sara Motta) Social Movements in the Global South: Dispossession, Development, and Resistance, London: Palgrave (2011).
(With Colin Barker, Laurence Cox, and John Krinsky) Marxism and Social Movements, Leiden: Brill (Forthcoming winter 2011/2012).
Single-Authored Journal Articles:
“‘The Authors and the Actors of Their Own Drama’: Towards a Marxist Theory of Social Movements”, Capital and Class No. 99, 2009.
“Autonome Domener eller Relasjonelle Praksiser? Makt og Motstand i Indisk Historie og Samtid”, Agora, No. 1, 2009.
“Political Economy, Social Movements and State Power: A Marxian Perspective on Two Decades of Resistance to the Narmada Dams”, Journal of Historical Sociology, No 2/3, Vol. 21, 2008.
“On New Social Movements and ‘the Reinvention of India’”, Forum for Development Studies No. 2, 2007.
“‘History Does Nothing’: Notes towards a Marxist Theory of Social Movements”, Sosiologisk Årbok 1-2, 2007.
Co-Authored Journal Articles:
(with Laurence Cox): “Social Movement Research and ‘the Movement of Movements’: Studying Resistance to Neoliberal Globalization’, Sociological Forum 1-2 2007; republished in special issue of Sociology Compass on the theme of Globalization, 2008.
Single Authored Book Chapters:
“Motstrøms Nedenfra: Ressurrov og Folkelig Motstand I Narmadadalen, India”, in Helle, I., Kjelstadli, K. And Sørvoll, J. (eds.): Historier om Motstand: Kollektive Bevegelser i det 20. Århundret, Oslo: Abstrakt Forlag (2010).
”’Not Suspended in Mid-Air’: Critical Reflections on Subaltern Encounters with the Indian State”, in Social Movements in the Global South: Dispossession, Development and Resistance, edited by Alf Nilsen and Sara Motta, London: Palgrave (2011).
“Contesting the Postcolonial Development Project: Towards a Marxist Perspective on Popular Resistance in the Narmada Valley, India”, forthcoming in Barker, C., Cox, L., Krinsky, J. and Nilsen, A. G. (eds.): Marxism and Social Movements, Leiden: Brill (2011/2012).
Co-Authored Book Chapters:
(with Sara Motta) “Social Movements and/in the Postcolonial: Dispossession, Development, and Resistance in the Global South”, in Nilsen, A. G. and Motta, S. (eds.): Social Movements in the Global South: Dispossession, Development and Resistance, London: Palgrave (2011).
(with Laurence Cox) “What Would a Marxist Theory of Social Movements Look Like?”, forthcoming in Barker, C., Cox, L., Krinsky, J. and Nilsen, A. G. (eds.): Marxism and Social Movements, Leiden: Brill (2011/2012).
(with Colin Barker, John Krinsky, and Laurence Cox) “Introduction: Marxism and Social Movements”, forthcoming in Barker, C., Cox, L., Krinsky, J. and Nilsen, A. G. (eds.): Marxism and Social Movements, Leiden: Brill (2011/2012).
Single-Authored Papers in Conference Proceedings:
“The River and the Rage: Dispossession and Resistance in the Narmada Valley”, in Colin Barker and Mike Tyldesley (eds.): Twelfth International Conference on Alternative Futures and Popular Protest 2007 – Conference Papers Volume 3, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Manchester Metropolitan University.
“‘I Release You, Fear’: Building Subaltern Power in the Context of Everyday Tyranny”, in Colin Barker and Mike Tyldesley (eds.): Twelfth International Conference on Alternative Futures and Popular Protest 2006 – Conference Papers Volume 3, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Co-Authored Papers in Conference Proceedings:
(with Laurence Cox): “‘The Bourgeoisie, Historically, Has Played a Most Revolutionary Part: Understanding Social Movements From Above”, in Colin Barker and Mike Tyldesley (eds.): Eleventh International Conference on Alternative Futures and Popular Protest 2006 – Conference Papers Volume 3, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Manchester Metropolitan University
(with Laurence Cox): “‘At the Heart of Society Burns the Fire of Social Movements”: What Would a Marxist Theory of Social Movements Look Like?”, in Colin Barker and Mike Tyldesley (eds.): Tenth International Conference on Alternative Futures and Popular Protest 2005 – Conference Papers Volume 2, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Manchester Metropolitan University
Articles in Newspapers and Periodicals
“Hjemmefronten”, Klassekampen, 01.07.2004
"Alterglobaliseringens Hjemmefronter”, Utveier 3/4 2004
"Hegemoni – Hva Slags Barriere for Forandring?”, Gnisten, 30.04.2005
"Hegemoni som Prosess”, Klassekampen, 01.08.2005
"Hva er Egentlig Nyliberalisme?”, Gnisten, 15.04.2006
"Defensiv vs. Offensiv”, Gnisten, 03.05. 2006
"Hverdagsmotstand, Hegemoni og Mobilisering”, Gnisten, 17.10.2006
"Fra Frykt til Motstand”, Gnisten, 06.11.2006
Commissioned Book Reviews
"Ujevnt om Ujevn Utvikling” – review of David Harvey: Spaces of Global Capitalism, Agora 1-2 2007
"Nådeløst om Slumplaneten” – review of Mike Davis: Planet of Slums, Agora 3-4 2007
Review of David McNally: Another World is Possible, Capital and Class 94, 2008
“Nyliberalisme som Sjokkdoktrine” – review of Naomi Klein: The Shock Doctrine, Agora 1-2, 2008.
“Kapitalisme og Imperialisme – i Teori og Praksis” – review of Alex Callinicos: Imperialism and Global Political Economy, Agora 1-2 2010.
SOS110: Global Dynamics
Ongoing Projects with External Funding
Everyday State-Society Relationships and Social Movements in Adivasi Communities, Western Madhya Pradesh, India – Postdoctoral research project funded by the Norwegian Research Council, which investigates the extent to which social movements have been able to democratize local state-society relationships in Madhya Pradesh, India; begun in 2009, concludes in 2013.
Completed Projects
The Valley and the Nation; The River and The Rage – A Study of Dispossession and Resistance in the Narmada Valley, India – PhD project, Department of Sociology, University of Bergen, completed in May 2006; the thesis was examined by distinguished professor David Harvey (City University of New York) and Professor John Harriss (Simon Fraser University), and an abridged version of the thesis was published by Routledge’s book series Advancves in South Asia Studies in 2010.
Social Movements and/in the Postcolonial: Dispossession, Development and Resistance in the Global South – Conference and book project, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham, completed June 2008, book to be published in March 2011.
Marxism and Social Movements – A collaborative book project involving researchers from the USA, Great Britain and Ireland, which has resulted in a book contract with Brill/Haymarket for publication of an edited volume to be published in winter 2011/2012.