Professor Robert van Krieken

Biography

Of Dutch parentage, but born in Hong Kong where I spent my primary school years. I came to Sydney in 1967, and on leaving school did a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Sociology at the University of NSW. I did my PhD at UNSW as well, supervised by Michael Pusey. I started working at the University of Sydney in 1979, and since then I have helped build up the Sociology programme, as well as the Socio-Legal programme more recently. I’m also active in the International Sociological Association.

Qualifications

BA (Hons), PhD UNSW, LLB (Syd)

Current Position

Professor of Sociology and Chair of Department.

Research and supervision Interests

Social change, socio-legal issues (practical and theoretical), family law, the changing formation of identity and the self under varying social and historical conditions, power and social control, changing patterns of state-formation, technology and social relationships, application of social theory to current societal transformations, celebrity as a social form, globalization. Click here for a more detailed description of research supervision areas.

Research grants

• 2006-2011 Civilizing Divorce: Social Change, Law and the Transformation of Parenthood’, Australian Research Council Discovery Project $140,000.
• 2003 ‘‘Legal reasoning as a field of knowledge production: law and social science’, University of Sydney Sesqui Grant, $13,500.
• 1999-2000 ‘The stolen generations: implications for Australian civilisation, citizenship and governance’, Australian Research Council Large, Grant, $80,000.
• 1999 ‘The ‘Bringing them Home’ stolen generations report: a sociological analysis of the evidence’, Australian Research Council Small Grant, $11,000.
• 1998 ‘Cultural Genocide, civilization and governance: the ‘stolen generations’ and the formation of Australian society’ - Extended Research Secondment Scheme, University of Sydney, 1st Semester 1998, $20,000.
• 1992 ‘The Evaluation of Sociology Teaching in Social Work Education – II’ Australian Research Council Small Grant, $6,950.
• 1991 ‘The Evaluation of Sociology Teaching in Social Work Education- I’ University Research Grant, $4,000.

Offices held

In the International Sociological Association: President of Research Committee 53, Sociology of Childhood, Vice-President of RC17 Sociology of Organizations, Vice-President of Working Group 02. Historical & Comparative Sociology, Member of the Executive Committee 2006-2010, Vice-President for Finance & Membership 2010-2014. Member of the Executive of the Sociological Association of Ireland, 2009-2011.

Visiting Positions

Visiting Professor at University College Dublin, Visiting Scholar, Amsterdam School for Social Research (1994).

Teaching areas

Sociological theory. socio-legal studies, law and social theory, celebrity society, childhood, family, theory and research on processes of civilization and decivilization.

Publications

Books

• 2012 Celebrity Society. London: Routledge.
• 2010 [with Patricia Loughlan and Barbara McDonald] Celebrity and the Law. Sydney: Federation Press.
• 2010 Sociology 4th ed. Sydney: Pearson Education Australia [with P Smith, D Habibis, B. Hutchins, G Martin, K Maton].
• 2005 Sociology: Themes and Perspectives 3^rd ed. Sydney: Pearson Education Australia [with P Smith, D Habibis, B Hutchins, M Haralambos, M Holborn].
• 2002 Norbert Elias, translated into Danish by Tom Havemann, Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
• 2000 Sociology: Themes and Perspectives 2^nd ed. Sydney: Pearson Education Australia [with P Smith, D Habibis, K McDonald, M Haralambos, M Holborn].
• 1998 Norbert Elias. London: Routledge.
• 1996 Sociology: Themes and Perspectives. Melbourne: Addison-Wesley-Longman [with A Davis, D Habibis, P Smith, M. Haralambos, M. Holborn,].
• 1992 Children and the State: Social Control and the Formation of Australian Child Welfare. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

Refereed journal articles

• 2012 ‘Between assimilation and multiculturalism: models of integration in Australia’, Patterns of Prejudice 465(5) forthcoming.
• 2012 ‘We have never been multicultural – Review Essay of Paul Scheffer’s Immigrant Nations, Contemporary Sociology, 41(4): 466-9
• 2011 ‘Kumarangk (Hindmarsh Island) and the politics of natural justice under settler-colonialism’, Law & Social Inquiry 26(1): 125-49.
• 2010 ‘Childhood in Australian sociology and society’, Current Sociology 58(2): 232-49.
• 2008 ‘Cultural genocide reconsidered’, Australian Indigenous Law Review, 12, Special Edition: 76-81.
• 2008 [with Doris Bühler-Niederberger] ‘Persisting Inequalities: Childhood between global influences and local traditions’ Childhood 15(2):147-155.
• 2006 ‘Law’s autonomy in action: anthropology and history in court’, Social & Legal Studies 15(4): 577-93.
• 2005 ‘Occidental self-understanding and the Elias-Duerr dispute: ‘thick’ versus ‘thin’ conceptions of human subjectivity and civilization’, Modern Greek Studies 13: 273-81.
• 2005 ‘The “best interests of the child” and parental separation: on the “civilizing of parents”’, Modern Law Review 68(1): 25-48.
• 2004 ‘Rethinking cultural genocide: indigenous child removal and settler-colonial state-formation’, Oceania 75(2) 125-151.
• 2004 ‘Decline and fall’, Meanjin 63(4): 53-8.
• 2002 ‘The paradox of the ‘two sociologies’’: Hobbes, Latour and the constitution of modern social theory’, Journal of Sociology 38(3): 255-73
• 2002 ‘Reshaping civilization: liberalism between assimilation and cultural genocide’, Amsterdams Sociologisch Tijdschrift, 29(2), 1-38.
• 2001 ‘Is Assimilation Justiciable? Lorna Cubillo & Peter Gunner v Commonwealth’, Sydney Law Review 23(2): 239-60.
• 2001 ‘Legal informalism, power and liberal governance’, Social & Legal Studies 10(1): 5-22.
• 2000 ‘From Milirrpum to Mabo: the High Court, Terra Nullius and Moral Entrepreneurship’, UNSW Law Journal 23(1): 63-77.
• 1999 ‘The barbarism of civilization: cultural genocide and the ‘stolen generations’’, British J of Sociology 50(2): 295-313.
• 1999 ‘The “stolen generations”: on the removal of Australian indigenous children from their families and its implications for the sociology of childhood’ Childhood 6(3): 297-311.
• 1998 ‘What does it mean to be Civilised? Norbert Elias on the Germans and Modern Barbarism’ Communal/Plural 6(2): 225-33: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/909
• 1997 ‘Sociology and the reproductive self: demographic transitions and modernity’ Sociology 31(3): 445-71.
  Translated into German as: ‘Kindheit, Schule und der tendenzielle Fall der Geburtenrate’ Widersprüche 15(58) 1995: 19-29; and Dutch, as: ‘De sociologie en het reproduktieve zelf’ Amsterdams Sociologisch Tijdschrift 22(3) 1995: 457-87.
• 1997 [with Eric Dunning] ‘Translators’ introduction to Norbert Elias’s ‘Towards a theory of social processes’ British J of Sociology 48(3): 353-4.
• 1996 ‘Proto-governmentalization and the historical formation of organizational subjectivity’ Economy & Society 25(2): 195-221.
• 1992 ‘La formación de los sistemas de bienestar infantil entre 1890 y 1940’ Annuario de Psicolog'a 53: 5-25.
• 1991 ‘The poverty of social control: on explanatory logic in the historical sociology of the welfare state’ Sociological Review 38(1): 1-25.
  Translated into German as: ‘Soziale Kontrolle im Abseits: zur Erklärungskraft der historischen Soziologie des Wohlfahrtsstaates’ Sozialwissenschaftliche Literatur Rundschau 21, 1990: 57-72.
• 1990 ‘The organisation of the soul: Elias and Foucault on discipline and the self’ Archives Europeénes de Sociologie 31(2): 353-71.
  Translated into German as: ‘Elias und Foucault über Disziplin und das Selbst’ Prokla 21(4) 1991: 602-19.and Portugese, as: ‘A Organização da Alma: Elias e Foucault sobre a Disciplina e o Eu’ Plural 3(1) 1996: 153-80.
• 1990 ‘Social discipline and state formation: Weber and Oestreich on the historical sociology of subjectivity’ Amsterdams Sociologisch Tijdschrift 17(1): 3-28.
• 1989 ‘Violence, self-discipline and modernity: beyond the “civilizing process”’ Sociological Review 37(2): 193-218.
  Translated into German as: ‘Gewalt, Selbst-Disziplin und Modernität: Jenseits des “Zivilisationsprozesses”’ Psychologie und Geschichte 2(4) 1991: 212-221.
• 1989 ‘Towards “Good and Useful Men and Women”: the state and childhood in Sydney, 1840-1890’ Australian Historical Studies 93: 405-425.
  Translated into Dutch as: ‘Om goede en bruikbare mannen en vrouwen: staat en kind in Australie, 1840-1890’ Comenius 39, 1990: 326-45.
• 1989 ‘State bureaucracy and social science: child welfare in New South Wales, 1915-1940’ Labour History 58: 17-35.
• 1986 ‘Social theory and child welfare: beyond social control’ Theory & Society 15: 401-29.
• 1986 ‘Children and the State. Child Welfare in New South Wales, 1890-1915' Labour History 51: 33-53.
• 1984 [with Gerhard Smid] ‘Notes on Theory and practice in Social Work: a comparative view’ British Journal of Social Work 14(1): 11-22.
• 1981 ‘Participation in welfare: democracy or self-regulation?’ Australian Quarterly 53(1): 74-91.
• 1980 ‘The capitalist state and the organisation of welfare: an introduction’ Australian & New Zealand J of Sociology 16(3): 23-35.
• 1980 ‘Social Work and psychology: a critique of ego psychology’ Arena 56, 66-86.

Book chapters

• 2011 'Three faces of civilization: 'In the beginning all the world was Ireland'' in Norbert Elias and Figurational Research: Processual Thinking in Sociology, edited by N. Gabriel, N. & S. Mennell, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 24-47.
• 2010 ‘Reassembling civilization: state-formation, subjectivity, security, power’, in State, Security and Subject Formation, edited by Anna Yeatman and Magdalena Zolkos, New York: Continuum, pp. 36-49.
• 2009 [with Doris Bühler-Niederberger] ‘Rethinking the sociology of childhood: conflict, competition and cooperation between children and adults in contemporary social life’, in New Handbook of International Sociology, edited by Ann Denis & Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, London: Sage: 421-60.
• 2008 ‘Crime and Social Theory’, in The Critical Criminology Companion, edited by Thalia Anthony & Chris Cuneen, Sydney: Hawkins Press: 68-79.
• 2008 ‘Cultural Genocide’, in The Historiography of Genocide, edited by Dan Stone, London: Palgrave Macmillan: 128-155.
• 2006 ‘The ethics of corporate legal personality’, in Management Ethics: Contemporary Contexts, edited by Stewart Clegg & Carl Rhodes, London: Routledge: 77-96.
• 2006 ‘The socio-legal construction of the ‘best interests of the child’: law’s autonomy, sociology and family law’, in Law and Sociology: Current Issues in Legal Theory Vol 8, edited by Michael Freeman, Oxford: Oxford University Press: 437-58.
• 2005 ‘Stolen generations: Australian civilization, citizenship and governance’ in Violation of trust: Institutional Abuse and Child Welfare in Australia, edited by Judith Bessant, Richard Hil and Rob Watts, Sydney: Allen & Unwin: 29-50.
• 2005 ‘Assimilation and liberal government’ in Contesting Assimilation, edited by Tim Rowse, Perth: Australian Public Intellectual Network: 39-47.
• 2005 ‘Frech oder schuldig. Wie das Recht über die Strafmündigkeit der Kinder denkt in England, Deutschland und Australien’ in Die Macht der Unschuld – das Kind als Chiffre, edited by Doris Bühler-Niederberger, Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften: 185-225.
• 2003 ‘When is child welfare cultural genocide? On the politics of the organised ‘improvement’ of children's lives’ in Political Socialisation, Participation and Education: Change of Epoch - Processes of Democratisation, edited by Heinz Sünker, Russell Farnen & György Szell, Frankfurt: Peter Lang: 87-112.
• 2003 [with Martin Krygier] ‘The character of the nation’ in Whitewash: On Keith Windschuttle’s Fabrication of Aboriginal History, edited by Robert Manne, Melbourne: Black Inc Books: 81-108.
• 2003 ‘The organization of the soul: Elias and Foucault on discipline and the self’ in Norbert Elias, Vol. 1 (Sage Masters of Modern Social Thought), edited by Eric Dunning and Stephen Mennell. London: Sage: 135-53. [Reprint of 1990 Archives Europeénes de Sociologie article].
• 2001 ‘Liberalism and Civilization: between assimilation and cultural genocide’ in Grenzgängerin: Bridges between disciplines. Eine Festschrift für Irmingard Staeuble, edited by Christiane Alsop, Heidelberg: Asanger Verlag: 210-28.
• 2001 ‘Norbert Elias’ in Key Contemporary Social Theorists, edited by Anthony Elliott & Larry Ray, Oxford: Blackwell: 116-22.
• 2001 ‘Norbert Elias and Process Sociology’ in The Handbook of Social Theory, edited by George Ritzer & Barry Smart, London: Sage: 353-67.
• 2000 ‘Governance, law and civilisation’ in Civilising the State: Civil Society, Policy and State Transformation, edited by Susan Kenny, Robert van Krieken, Jehan Loza & Michael Muetzelfeldt, Geelong: Centre for Citizenship & Human Rights, Deakin University: 239-52.
• 2000 ‘Democracy and citizenship in Germany’ in Democracy and Citizenship in a Global Era, edited by Andrew Vandenberg, London/New York: Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press: 123-37.
• 2000 ‘Beyond the ‘Parsonian problem of order’: Elias, Habitus and the two sociologies’ in Zivilisationstheorie in der Bilanz: Beiträge zum 100. Geburtstag von Norbert Elias (1897-1990), edited by Annette Treibel, Helmut Kuzmics & Reinhard Blomert, Opladen: Leske & Budrich: 119-142.
• 1998 ‘Een jongen en zijn staat’, in Mensen Kijken, edited by Kees Bruin et al, Amsterdam: Walters-Nordhoff: 106-109.
• 1992 ‘The poverty of social control’, in State, Society and Politics in Australia, edited by Michael Muetzelfeldt, Melbourne: Pluto Press: 254-79.