Hans T. Blokland is a Dutch social and political theorist. Currently he is a professor at the Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences at the Humboldt University of Berlin

Humboldt University of Berlin

The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...

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Blokland is the author of Freedom and Culture in Western Society (1997) and Modernization and its political consequences (2006). His work has awarded, among others, the Pieter de la Court-prize of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences is an organisation dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands...

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The central subjects of Blokland's work are the meanings of freedom, autonomy

Autonomy

Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...

, paternalism

Paternalism

Paternalism refers to attitudes or states of affairs that exemplify a traditional relationship between father and child. Two conditions of paternalism are usually identified: interference with liberty and a beneficent intention towards those whose liberty is interfered with...

 and emancipation

Emancipation

Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...

; cultural politics and cultural policy

Cultural policy

Cultural Policy is the area of public policy-making that governs activities related to the arts and culture. Generally, this involves fostering processes, legal classifications and institutions which promote cultural diversity and accessibility, as well as enhancing and promulgating the artistic,...

; ethical pluralism of philosophers like Isaiah Berlin

Isaiah Berlin

Sir Isaiah Berlin OM, FBA was a British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century and a dominant liberal scholar of his generation...

 and political pluralism of political scientists like Robert Dahl and Charles E. Lindblom

Charles E. Lindblom

Charles Edward Lindblom is a Sterling Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Economics at Yale University. He is a former president of the American Political Science Association and the Association for Comparative Economic Studies and also a former director of Yale's Institution for Social...

; the process of modernization

Modernization

In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...

 (rationalization

Rationalization (sociology)

Rationalization is a term used in sociology to refer to a process in which an increasing number of social actions become based on considerations of teleological efficiency or calculation rather than on motivations derived from morality, emotion, custom, or tradition...

, differentiation and individualization

Individualization

Individualization may refer to*discrimination or perception of the individual within a group or species**identification in forensics and intelligence*the development of individual traits...

); the dissemination, potencies and flaws of the market

Market

A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...

 and bureaucracy

Bureaucracy

A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...

; the development of (the thinking on) democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

, policy-making and planning; and the history and potency of political science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

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Select bibliography

• Freedom and Culture in Western Society (London & New York: Routledge, 1997)
• Modernization and its Political Consequences: Weber, Mannheim and Schumpeter (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2006).
• Pluralism, Democracy and Political Knowledge (forthcoming)

External links

• Official website