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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 September 22, 2023

The Political Life of Memory

Birsa Munda in Contemporary India

Rahul Ranjan

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Listen:
How do affective sites such as memorials and statues produce political visions, emotions, and opportunities? And how are they used strategically to further particular political projects? In this episode, we …
Nordic Asia Podcast July 28, 2023

India's Development Diplomacy and Soft Power in Africa

A Discussion with Kenneth King and Meera Venkatachalam

Kenneth King and Meera Venkatachalam

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Listen:
In this episode, Kenneth King (University of Edinburgh) & Meera Venkatachalam (University of Mumbai), discuss their recently co-edited volume, India's Development Diplomacy and Soft Power in Africa, published by Boydell …
Nordic Asia Podcast July 7, 2023

Hindu Nationalism and Lower Caste Politics

A Discussion with Samantha Agarwal

Samantha Agarwal

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
Listen:
Why and how has India’s Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, become so adept at appealing to and recruiting people from the lower castes? And what does this mean for Indian …
Nordic Asia Podcast June 30, 2023

Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations

A Clash of Identities?

Farhat Taj

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
With Afghanistan once again under Taliban rule and Pakistan reeling under a severe economic and political crisis, the relationship between the neighbouring countries is growing increasingly tense. How can we …
Nordic Asia Podcast May 19, 2023

The Politics of Community-Making in New Urban India

Illiberal Spaces, Illiberal Cities

Ritanjan Das and Nilotpal Kumar

Hosted by Kenneth Bo Nielsen
How is urban India changing? And how do communities inhabit and transform India’s new cities and urban spaces? In this episode Kenneth Bo Nielsen is joined by Ritanjan Das to …
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 …