Kees Koonings, born in Laren, the Netherlands, in 1957. Ph.D. from Utrecht University. Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Utrecht University.
Fellow (1 September 1998 – 30 June 1999)
During my year at NIAS I participated in the theme group “East Asian and Latin American Developments Compared”. Within this group, I focussed on the social dimensions of rapid industrialisation in both regions, through a specific comparison of the nature and socio – political causes of differences in equity and welfare in Brazil and South Korea. In two draft chapters for the group’s proposed volume I worked together with Hagen Koo on the comparative analysis of labour and trade unions in both countries and on the relevance of welfare – related policies and social mobilisation in the same two countries.
In addition, I undertook a number of individual research and publication activities at NIAS. Together with Michiel Baud (NIAS Visiting Scholar from Leiden University in January 1999) we worked on the data from a joint research project on tobacco cultivation and regional development in Bahia, Brazil, 1970-1930. With Patricio Silva I finished the editing of a volume on “Ethnic Constructions and Sociocultural Change in Latin America” (in Spanish – forthcoming with Ediciones Abya Yala, Quito, Ecuador).
In November 1998, Patricio Silva and I conducted fieldwork in Chile for a joint project on technocrats and politics in Brazil and Chile. I also finished, among other things, two articles in edited volumes forthcoming from international academic publishers; one article on Mercosul and regional development in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and a second article on factionalism within Brazil’s armed forces during the 1964-1985 military regime.