Thomas Blom Hansen

Bio: Thomas Blom Hansen is an academic researcher from Stanford University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Politics & Sovereignty. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 41 publications receiving 2899 citations. Previous affiliations of Thomas Blom Hansen include Yale University & Roskilde University.

The India That Does Not Shine

Abstract: The 140 million Muslims in India receive very little media attention. The resulting lack of knowledge has assisted Hindu nationalists in cultivating stereotypical depictions, but has hindered policies aimed at the incorporation of Muslims into Indian society. This article analyzes a recent government report about Muslims in India and shows that the oftcommented upon introversion of Muslims is not an innate propensity of Muslims, but a reaction to decades of exclusion from broader social life.

Controlled Emancipation: Women and Hindu Nationalism

Abstract: (1994). Controlled emancipation: Women and Hindu nationalism. The European Journal of Development Research: Vol. 6, Ethnicity, Gender and the Subversion of Nationalism, pp. 82-94.

Cool Passion : The Political Theology of Conviction

Abstract: Thomas Hansen spreekt in zijn oratie over overtuigingen. Het hebben van een overtuiging wordt geassocieerd met principes en waarden die mensen aanhangen, omdat zij overtuigd zijn door hun waarheidsgehalte of ethische superioriteit. Een overtuiging is dus iets anders dan het geloof in religieuze of bovennatuurlijke krachten. Een overtuigd mens is iemand die stand houdt, oprecht en gewetensvol is en de moed heeft te handelen naar zijn overtuigingen, iemand die bereid is om comfort en zelfs zijn leven op te offeren om trouw te blijven aan bepaalde waarden of ideologieen. Overtuigingen worden altijd bewust gekozen - een conceptuele kooi waardoor iemand zich vrijwillig laat overtuigen. Dit hebben van overtuigingen en cultiveren van een innerlijk geweten waarin men zichzelf (on)vrijwillig laat overtuigen door de eigen overtuigingen, is tegenwoordig in grote delen van de wereld een dominant persoonlijkheidsmodel. Het heeft de manier waarop geloof en religieuze waarheden worden gepresenteerd sterk beinvloed: mensen worden nu overtuigd via tekstueel en/of wetenschappelijk 'bewijs' of logische argumenten. De kracht van overtuigingen is afhankelijk van het bekoorlijkste menselijke vermogen: dat om beslissingen te nemen, om jezelf te overtuigen of je te laten overtuigen, zelfverzekerd te handelen, je leven opnieuw vorm te geven, zelfs het leven van een ander te beeindigen, geweld te gebruiken of andere radicale maatregelen te nemen, in de naam van een abstract doel of principe. Het 'wonder' van het nemen van beslissingen in zaken die de staat en de politiek aangaan, brengt een 'politieke theologie' voort: het toeschrijven van magische en charismatische kwaliteiten aan degenen die beslissingen nemen, de leider of de staat. Je kunt een soortgelijk kader gebruiken om de meer alledaagse 'wonderen' van overtuigingen te begrijpen. Het wonder zit hem in de vastberadenheid, de brute kracht van 'waarheid' en de wil en het vermogen om te handelen, te straffen en te veroordelen, vaak in alle oprechtheid en met vleesgeworden passie.

Inside the Romanticist Episteme

Abstract: Many contemporary critiques of `modernity' target a caricatured construction of `modernity-as-universalist-reason'. Such critiques are often blind to the constitutive splits and tensions within the philosophical and political horizons of modernity between a rationalist and a romanticist episteme. These critiques are therefore also oblivious to the fact that their own critiques of modernity move on a terrain heavily structured and prefigured by older romanticist critiques of reason and scientific objectivity. Some of the persistent problems in romanticist thought - the celebration of authenticity and a recurrent essentialism - reappear in current post-structuralist critiques of modernity. This is particularly evident in the debates in South Asia - emerging from the subaltern studies group in India, from debates on hybridity and migration, and on post-coloniality as a critique of Western modernity. Rather than launching essentializing and totalizing critiques of `modernity-as-universalist-reason', which ten...

Whose Public, Whose Authority? Reflections on the moral force of violence

Abstract: In this Afterword I argue that public authority in South Asia is produced in a dynamic interplay between ever-more segmented publics and the ubiquity of highly performative violence. Drawing on Indian examples, I suggest that the success of vernacular publics in producing a sense of cultural intimacy within language communities in turn has prompted a new segmentation of publics. This has occurred along lines of caste and community, defined by social experience and symbols, rather than language as such. The concomitant routinization of violence in public life—whether as physical destruction of public property, attacks on other communities, or as symbolic elevations of victims of violence to the status of martyrs—indicate that today valorization and experiences of violence, however incommensurable, have emerged as a universal medium, or general equivalent, in public and political life in India.

The culture of control: crime and social order in contemporary, society

Abstract: Nos últimos trinta trinta anos, houve profundas mudanças na forma como compreendemos o crime e a justiça criminal. O crime tornou-se um evento simbólico, um verdadeiro teste para a ordem social e para as políticas governamentais, um desafio para a sociedade civil, para a democracia e para os direitos humanos. Segundo David Garland, professor da Faculdade de Direito da New York University, um dos principais autores no campo da Sociologia da Punição e com artigo publicado na Revista de Sociologia e Política , número 13, na modernidade tardia houve uma verdadeira obsessão securitária, direcionando as políticas criminais para um maior rigor em relação às penas e maior intolerância com o criminoso. Há trinta anos, nos EUA e na Inglaterra essa tendência era insuspeita. O livro mostra que os dois países compartilham intrigantes similaridades em suas práticas criminais, a despeito da divisão racial, das desigualdades econômicas e da letalidade violenta que marcam fortemente o cenário americano. Segundo David Garland, encontram-se nos dois países os “mesmos tipos de riscos e inseguranças, a mesma percepção a respeito dos problemas de um controle social não-efetivo, as mesmas críticas da justiça criminal tradicional, e as mesmas ansiedades recorrentes sobre mudança e ordem sociais”1 (GARLAND, 2001, p. 2). O argumento principal da obra é o seguinte: a modernidade tardia, esse distintivo padrão de relações sociais, econômicas e culturais, trouxe consigo um conjunto de riscos, inseguranças e problemas de controle social que deram uma configuração específica às nossas respostas ao crime, ao garantir os altos custos das políticas criminais, o grau máximo de duração das penas e a excessivas taxas de encarceramento.

The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World

Abstract: PrefaceThe Leonard Hastings Schoff Memorial Lectures 2001The Nation in Heterogeneous TimePopulations and Political SocietyThe Politics of the GovernedGlobal/Local: Before and After September 11The Great PeaceBattle HymnThe Contradictions of SecularismAre Indian Cities Becoming Bourgeois At Last?Bibliography

Transnational Migration Studies: Past Developments and Future Trends

Abstract: The past two decades have witnessed a sea change in migration scholarship. Most scholars now recognize that many contemporary migrants and their predecessors maintain various kinds of ties to their homelands at the same time that they are incorporated into the countries that receive them. Increasingly, social life takes place across borders, even as the political and cultural salience of nation-state boundaries remains strong. Transnational migration studies has emerged as an inherently interdisciplinary field, made up of scholars around the world, seeking to describe and analyze these dynamics and invent new methodological tools with which to do so. In this review, we offer a short history of theoretical developments, outlining the different ways in which scholars have defined and approached transnational migration. We then summarize what is known about migrant transnationalism in different arenas—economics, politics, the social, the cultural, and the religious. Finally, we discuss methodological...

Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race

Abstract: MC 281 is the second in the required sophomore sequence for Social Relations and Policy. In this course, we will explore the interactions and experiences between and among various groups in American history. We will consider how Americans both defended and contested prevailing definitions of fitness for citizenship and inclusion in the political process and American life, and how groups sought to gain access to social and political equality. This course focuses on the history of relationships within and between different groups in the United States, and explores the complexities of those relations. Rarely centered solely on race or ethnicity, such interactions were also affected by gender, sexuality, religion, nation, and class. We will also explore the shifting definitions of race and ethnicity. Students will analyze not only the experiences of the different groups, but also the connections between them to assess the larger dynamics and their implications for public policy.