Jan Breman

{{short description|Dutch sociologist (born 1936)}}

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| caption = Breman at the SOAS University of London, 2013

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1936|07|24|df=y}}

| birth_place = Amsterdam

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| nationality = Dutch

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| title = Professor emeritus

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| discipline = Sociology

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| workplaces = University of Amsterdam

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Johannes Cornelis "Jan" Breman (born 24 July 1936, in Amsterdam) is a Dutch sociologist and an emeritus professor of the University of Amsterdam.{{cite web|author=Jan Breman |url=http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article450111.ece |title=The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : The social question, who cares? |publisher=Beta.thehindu.com |date=9 June 2010 |access-date=7 February 2011}} He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate{{cite web |url=http://www.iss.nl/About-ISS/History/Jan-Breman |title=Jan Breman / History / About ISS - Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands |publisher=Iss.nl |access-date=7 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817030822/http://www.iss.nl/About-ISS/History/Jan-Breman |archive-date=17 August 2011}} at Institute of Social Studies (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.

In 1988 Breman became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.{{cite web|author= |url=https://www.knaw.nl/en/members/members/3944 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305103927/https://www.knaw.nl/en/members/members/3944 |title=Jan Breman |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |date= |archive-date=5 March 2017}} He was elected a member of Academia Europaea in 1989.{{cite web|author= |url=https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Breman_Jan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328131915/https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Breman_Jan |title=Jan Breman |publisher=Academia Europaea |date= |archive-date=28 March 2019}}

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".{{Cite journal|last=Breman|first=Jan|url=https://ideas.repec.org/b/cup/cbooks/9780521568241.html|title=Footloose Labour|journal=Cambridge Books |date=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|language=en}}