Robin Cohen
Encyclopedia
Robin Cohen is a sociologist working in the fields of international development and migration. He is Professor of Development Studies and Director of the International Migration Institute, University of Oxford
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(2001-4). He has held appointments at the universities of Ibadan, Nigeria (1967-9), Birmingham, UK (1969–77), the West Indies (Professor of Sociology, 1977-9), Warwick, UK (Professor of Sociology, 1979–2006) and Oxford (2006-). The International Migration Institute at Oxford forms part of the visionary James Martin 21st Century School. Cohen has held other major research positions - for example as the Director of the Economic & Social Research Council's nationally-designated Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations (1984-9).
Cohen made a number of other contributions to the field of migration studies by giving new understandings to key contested concepts such as diaspora and borders, citizens and denizens, and collective or national identity. In his Frontiers of identity, (1994) he argued that 'fuzzy' frontiers within the UK and between Britain, the Commonwealth, and the wider world create a particular ambiguous notion of 'Britishness'. Perhaps his most influential work, Global diasporas, (1997, with many subsequent editions and translations) continued his analysis of the relationship between identity and migration. The book was thought to display 'vast erudition', but his lucid writing style has made his work accessible to scholars and students internationally. Through the use of typlogies, comparisons and suggestive lists of shared characteristics, Cohen was able to employ the ancient concept of diaspora to enrich the study of present-day transnational migrant flows. Along with James Clifford, William Safran, and Khachig Tölölyan, Cohen can be rightly considered one of the founding figures of contemporary diaspora studies.
Theoretically grounded in the classics of both sociology and politics, Cohen has an intellectual engagement across academic disciplines. The same is true with regard to the division between developing and industralised societies: Cohen is comfortable with debates and issues in these worlds and sensibly refuses to further harden the boundaries between them. He has collaborated with scholars on all continents, and in addition to the major works listed below Cohen has edited or co-edited 20 volumes and published extensively in a range of academic and popular journals.
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
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Career
Robin Cohen was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and was involved in student protests against the apartheid regime. He left in 1964, returning to the country for three years in the post-Mandela period, when he served as Dean of Humanities at the University of Cape TownUniversity of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
(2001-4). He has held appointments at the universities of Ibadan, Nigeria (1967-9), Birmingham, UK (1969–77), the West Indies (Professor of Sociology, 1977-9), Warwick, UK (Professor of Sociology, 1979–2006) and Oxford (2006-). The International Migration Institute at Oxford forms part of the visionary James Martin 21st Century School. Cohen has held other major research positions - for example as the Director of the Economic & Social Research Council's nationally-designated Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations (1984-9).
Intellectual contribution
Robin Cohen's doctoral work was published as Labour and politics in Nigeria (1974) - a book marked, one reviewer said, by the 'fine-focused but wide-ranging eye of a most intelligent and genuinely radical scholar'. There followed collaborative work on labour movements and labour history in other parts of Africa. However, his interest and expertise in labour developed into a wider project about the continuing significance of the movement of people across national boundaries and the problems to which this has given rise in very many parts of the world. Described as 'a formidable piece of comparative sociology and history', The new Helots (1987) suggested that Marx had grossly underestimated the continuing salience of migrant labour, a feature that allowed capitalism to thrive and thereby evade the fundamental confrontation between worker and employer that Marx predicted.Cohen made a number of other contributions to the field of migration studies by giving new understandings to key contested concepts such as diaspora and borders, citizens and denizens, and collective or national identity. In his Frontiers of identity, (1994) he argued that 'fuzzy' frontiers within the UK and between Britain, the Commonwealth, and the wider world create a particular ambiguous notion of 'Britishness'. Perhaps his most influential work, Global diasporas, (1997, with many subsequent editions and translations) continued his analysis of the relationship between identity and migration. The book was thought to display 'vast erudition', but his lucid writing style has made his work accessible to scholars and students internationally. Through the use of typlogies, comparisons and suggestive lists of shared characteristics, Cohen was able to employ the ancient concept of diaspora to enrich the study of present-day transnational migrant flows. Along with James Clifford, William Safran, and Khachig Tölölyan, Cohen can be rightly considered one of the founding figures of contemporary diaspora studies.
Theoretically grounded in the classics of both sociology and politics, Cohen has an intellectual engagement across academic disciplines. The same is true with regard to the division between developing and industralised societies: Cohen is comfortable with debates and issues in these worlds and sensibly refuses to further harden the boundaries between them. He has collaborated with scholars on all continents, and in addition to the major works listed below Cohen has edited or co-edited 20 volumes and published extensively in a range of academic and popular journals.
External links
- Interview with Robin Cohen in the Times Higher Educational Supplement on returning to South Africa Recreating Cape Town. Times Higher Education (2002-04-05). Retrieved on 2010-11-13.
- Interview with Robin Cohen on 'The law of success', Blog created by Haegwan Kim 2010
- 'Interview with Robin Cohen on the idea of diversity', Max Planck Institute for Ethnic and Religious Diversity, Interview mit Robin Cohen (Oxford) - MPI-MMG. Mmg.mpg.de. Retrieved on 2010-11-13.
- University of Oxford, International Migration Institute Robin Cohen — IMI. Imi.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved on 2010-11-13.
- Appointment as Director (French version) Nouveau directeur - Prof. Robin Cohen — IMI. Imi.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved on 2010-11-13.
- University of Oxford, Oxford Department of International Development web page People — Development Studies at Oxford. Qeh.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved on 2010-11-13.
- University of Warwick, Honorary Professor page Robin Cohen. .warwick.ac.uk (2010-09-20). Retrieved on 2010-11-13.
- Universities of Warwick and Oxford, research material on Creole social and cultural studies Creole Social and Cultural Studies. .warwick.ac.uk (2010-06-21). Retrieved on 2010-11-13.
- University of Cape Town news story University of Cape Town / Newsroom & publications / Monday Paper. Uct.ac.za (2003-12-09). Retrieved on 2010-11-13.