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About Kenneth Bo Nielsen

I am a social anthropologist working on social movements and the political economy of development in India. In addition to working and teaching at the University of Oslo, I also manage the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.
Kenneth Bo's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Kenneth Bo:

Nordic Asia Podcast March 31, 2023

Gender and Climate Change Adaptation in Bangladesh

An Interview with Kathinka Fossum Evertsen

Kathinka Fossum Evertsen

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
What does climate change adaptation look like in Bangladesh? And what kind of gendered social landscape does climate change adaptation have to navigate in Bangladesh? Bangladesh is among the countries …
Nordic Asia Podcast March 10, 2023

Consumption and Vietnam’s New Middle Classes

Societal Transformations and Everyday Life

Arve Hansen

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
In this episode, we discuss Arve Hansen’s new book Consumption and Vietnam’s New Middle Classes: Societal Transformations and Everyday Life (Springer, 2022). In this book, Hansen studies the dramatic changes in …
Nordic Asia Podcast December 30, 2022

Hindu Nationalism and the Politics of Lord Parshuram

A Discussion with Solano da Silva and Jigisha Bhattacharya

Solano da Silva and Jigisha Bhattacharya

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
In this episode, we focus the use of religious myths, icons and deities in Hindu nationalist politics in India. More specifically, we discuss the political invocation of Lord Parshuram, a …
Nordic Asia Podcast November 25, 2022

The Assassination and Legacy of Shinzo Abe

A Discussion with Paul Midford

Paul Midford

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
The brutal assassination of Prime Minister Abe in July this year shocked Japan and has produced large and unexpected consequences for the nation´s politics. In this episode, we examine the …
Nordic Asia Podcast October 28, 2022

Political Deification in South Asia

A Discussion with Moumita Sen, Michael Stausberg, Praskanva Sinharay and Sharika Thiranagama

Moumita Sen, Michael Stausberg, Praskanva Sinharay and Sharika Thiranagama

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
How can we understand the processes through which political leaders, god-men, stars of all kinds, and big or small deities mingle together in the public sphere? And what are the …
Nordic Asia Podcast September 16, 2022

Transcendence and Sustainability

Asian Visions with Global Promise

Mette Halskov, Amita Baviskar, and Lu Chen

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Can spiritually and religiously inspired environmental movements in Asia help reach the global goal of environmental sustainability? This question lies at the heart of the research project “Transcendence and Sustainability …
Nordic Asia Podcast August 12, 2022

Podcasting Academic Research

A Chat about the Nordic Asia Podcast

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
What is the potential of podcasts to disseminate research based insights? How can a podcast function as a networking and pedagogical tool? And what is so intriguing about a Nordic …
Nordic Asia Podcast June 10, 2022

What Happened to the Farm Law Movement?

A Conversation with Amandeep Sandhu

Amandeep Sandhu

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
The prolonged farmers' protests that unfolded in India in 2020-2021 undoubtedly represents the most significant and successful farmers’ movement in the country in recent decades. Often referred to as the …
Nordic Asia Podcast May 23, 2022

The “Post-Abe” era, Japan under Fumio Kishida

Paul Midford

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Does Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida´s new administration represent the true beginning of the “Post-Abe” era for Japan? After the one-year transitional administration of Yoshihide Suga, Kishida was able to …
Nordic Asia Podcast April 11, 2022

India’s Ukrainian Dilemma

A Discussion with Ravinder Kaur, Henrik Chetan Aspengren and Sunniva Engh

Ravinder Kaur, Henrik Chetan Aspengren and Sunniva Engh

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
The Russian war in Ukraine has placed India in a difficult situation: how to retain the historically good relationship with Russia, without jeopardizing the increasingly important strategic partnership with the …
Nordic Asia Podcast April 1, 2022

Masks of Authoritarianism

Hegemony, Power and Public Life in Bangladesh

Arild Engelsen Ruud and Mubashar Hasan

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Bangladesh has turned into a hybrid regime with an increasingly authoritarian culture that silences critics and oppositions in many brutal ways. How does the increasing authoritarianism of a surveillance state …
Nordic Asia Podcast March 18, 2022

Democratic Backsliding in Sri Lanka

A Discussion with Øivind Fuglerud

Øivind Fuglerud

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Cocktail umbrellas and refugee camps, serene Buddhist monasteries and soldiers in combat fatigues – Sri Lanka is a country of paradoxes. When the country became independent in 1948 it was …
Nordic Asia Podcast March 14, 2022

India's Five State Elections and their Implications

A Roundtable Discussion

Arild Ruud, Guro Samuelsen, Edward Moon-Little, Rahul Ranjan and Shreya Sinha

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
The past few months have been election season in India. Although these are state elections, many view them as a key midterm evaluation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his …
Nordic Asia Podcast February 25, 2022

Mythopolitics in South Asia

Moumita Sen, Silje L. Einarsen, The’ang Theron and Guro W. Samuelsen

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
India has been caught in a question for almost a decade now: is it a secular democracy or is it a Hindu nation? The struggles over this question goes from …
Nordic Asia Podcast January 14, 2022

Heritage, Humour and Regional Identity in Goa

A Conversation with Prakruti Ramesh

Prakruti Ramesh

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Since the 1980s, pictures by the late Goan cartoonist Mario Miranda have been used to adorn and confer ‘local’ flavour on a variety of public settings in Goa. Today, Miranda’s …
Nordic Asia Podcast December 13, 2021

Autocratization in South Asia

Sten Widmalm

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Although autocratic forms of rule have a longer history in postcolonial South Asia, the slide towards autocratization has arguably accelerated in recent years, albeit unevenly. In this episode Kenneth Bo …
Nordic Asia Podcast November 12, 2021

In Search of New Social Democracy: Insights from the South - Implications for the North

A Conversation with Olle Törnquist

Olle Törnquist

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
In his new book In Search of New Social Democracy: Insights from the South - Implications for the North (Zed-Bloomsbury), Olle Törnquist has returned to findings from fifty years of …
Nordic Asia Podcast October 22, 2021

The Modi Wave

Politics of the Pandemic in India

Alf Gunvald Nilsen

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
At the start of 2021, a widespread belief held that India had escaped the Covid-19 pandemic relatively unscathed - this was evidenced, the story went, in the country's comparatively low …
Nordic Asia Podcast September 24, 2021

The Turbulence and Controversies of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission

Sofie Schütte

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Indonesia’s corruption eradication commission, known as the KPK has widely been considered one of the most powerful and successful anti-corruption agencies in the region, if not in the entire world …
Nordic Asia Podcast September 3, 2021

Misreading the Bengal Delta

Climate Change, Development, and Livelihoods in Coastal Bangladesh

Camelia Dewan

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Climate change is one of the key challenges of our time and large amounts of development aid are allocated towards adaptation in the Global South. Yet, to what extent do …
Nordic Asia Podcast July 26, 2021

The Renewable Energy Revolution in East Asia and the Nordics

A discussion with Espen Moe, Paul Midford and Eric Zusman

Espen Moe, Paul Midford and Eric Zusman

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
The world is in a midst of a renewable energy revolution, with the price of utility scale photo-voltaic solar power falling by nearly 90% between 2009 and 2019, and the …
Nordic Asia Podcast June 25, 2021

Business as Usual?

International Responses to the Military Coup in Myanmar

Htwe Htwe Thein, Michael Gillan, and Kristian Stokke

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
In this episode of the Nordic Asia Podcast Kenneth Bo Nielsen of the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies is joined by Htwe Htwe Thein (Curtin University in Western Australia), Michael …
Nordic Asia Podcast May 10, 2021

Making Sense of the West Bengal Elections

A Discussion with Niladri Chatterjee, Zaad Mahmoud and Arild Engelsen Ruud

Niladri Chatterjee, Zaad Mahmoud and Arild Engelsen Ruud

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
In this episode Kennth Bo Nielsen of Asianettverket at the University of Oslo is joined by Niladri Chatterjee (University of Oslo), Zaad Mahmoud (Presidency University) and Arild Engelsen Ruud (University …
Nordic Asia Podcast March 22, 2021

Myanmar After the Coup with Kristian Stokke and Marte Nilsen

Kristian Stokke and Marte Nilsen

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
In this episode, Kristian Stokke, Professor at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo, talks to Marte Nilsen, Senior Researcher at PRIO, about the consequences of …