Ole Johannes Kaland is a social anthropologist with a particular fascination for issues relating to Chinese regions of Asia, especially mainland China and Taiwan. 

He holds a bachelors degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Bergen (2008), and a Master in Migration and Diaspora Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (2009). Since finishing his phd in anthropology at the University of Sussex (2014), Ole Johannes has worked as an associate professor of Intercultural Studies at NLA University College in Bergen (2014-2022), as a temporary lecturer of Social Anthropology at Brunel University in London (2015-2016), and as an affiliate researcher with the Urban Enclaving Futures research project at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen (2019-). 

Ole Johannes' PhD research focused on the grounds on which adolescent children of China’s internal migrant workers make existential choices regarding education and work. Based on ethnographic research with migrant youths in Shanghai, Anhui and Henan between 2010-2012 (and several subsequent trips to Shanghai in the years since), he has studied a range of questions regarding contemporary Chinese society, including state ambitions to become a leading power in research and science, Chinese discourses on human capital (suzhi), educational governance and pedagogies, welfare distribution, civil society, processes of individualisation, youth, family dynamics, and aspirations.  

In 2019, he was granted funding from the University of Bergen's Seedmoney for China-related Research to carry out field research in Shanghai on behalf of the Urban Enclaving Futures project in the autumn of 2020. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic rendered that impossible. Ole Johannes instead adapted by travelling to Taiwan and reorienting his research project there. Between November 2021 he was funded by a Huayu Enrichment Scholarship from the Taiwanese Ministry of Education (MOE) and a Taiwan Fellowship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to do research on how the Southern Taiwan Science Park (Nanke) affects local socioeconomic development. Towards this end, Ole Johannes was affiliated with the Department of Taiwanese Literature, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan, and the International Center for Cultural Studies (ICCS) at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) in Hsinchu. Where Ole Johannes used education and internal migrant youths as a nexus to study a range of issues in China during his PhD, in Taiwan he focused on the relationship between (teleological) (re)development projects related to housing, business and infrastructure, and how this is intrinsically bound to the migration and generation of different forms of labour enclaves between Taiwan, the US and South-East Asia. Based on this, Ole Johannes is currently writing about how these science parks inform national politics and state ambitions for science and technology, as well as local people's life aspirations through education, family, and housing. 

Between January and July 2024, Ole Johannes is in Shanghai, China, to fulfill his pre-pandemic research plans as an affiliate researcher of the School of Social Development and Public Policy at Fudan University. Here, he has two interrelated research goals: first, he will do field research for the UEF project focusing on housing in the production of different forms of enclaves in Shanghai. Second, he will do follow-up research for his PhD project on education from state and youth perspectives. Education and housing being important factors for people's life aspirations and self-actualization in China (as elsewhere), these projects also inform each other.  

Chaired breakfast seminar entitled "China's Iron Grip on Hong Kong and the New Line Towards Taiwan", hosted by Bergen Global (Christian Michelsens institute and the University of Bergen). 16 March 2021.

Chaired seminar entitled “Klimaforskning med verdens største forurenser” (‘Climate research with the worlds largest polluter’) hosted by Bergen Global (Christian Michelsens institute and the University of Bergen), 29 April 2019. 

Chaired seminar entitled “Re-education. Surveillance, repression and forced assimilation of minorities in today’s China” hosted by Rafto Foundation for Human Rights and Bergen Resource Center for International Development, 12 November 2018. 

 

Ole Johannes is happy to receive requests to participate in or chair events for an academic or broader audience. 

In the spring of 2023, Ole Johannes convened and taught "SANT103 Materiality: Environment, Place and Economy" at the Department of Social Anthropology, UiB. 

In the spring of 2022, Ole Johannes taught "SANT260 Bachelor Assignment" at the Department of Social Anthropology, UiB. 

 

Kaland, O. J. 2023. "Charlotte Bruckermann: Claiming Homes: Confronting Domicide in Rural China." Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift Vol. 34, Issue 3-4: 299-302.

KALAND, O. J. 2020. “We Have Many Options, But They Are All Bad Options!”: Aspirations Among Internal Migrant Youths In Shanghai, China. European Journal of Development Research, 33.

KALAND, O. J. 2020. The Cultural Production of the ‘Quality Citizen’: Internalisation, Appropriation and Re-configuration of Suzhi Discourse Among Migrant Youths in Shanghai, China. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 18, 303-316.

KALAND, O. J. 2016. ‘Awkward Encounters’: Authenticity and Artificiality in Rapport with Young Informants. In: ALLERTON, C. (ed.) Etnographic Encounters: Children. London, New York: Bloomsbury.

KALAND, O. J. 2013. Mette Halskov Hansen og Tune Svarverud (red.) iChina: The Rise of the Individual in Modern Chinese Society. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift, 24, 140-142.

KALAND, O. J. 2012. Researcher or Teacher? Reflections on Negotiated Roles in the Field. Teaching Anthropology, Vol 2.

Academic lecture

• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2023). Aspirations, Mobility and Housing in Tainan and Shanghai: A three-part Pecha Kucha Style Introduction. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2022). Selling One’s Liver to Buy a House: Some Preliminary Impressions From the Housing Market in Tainan. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2022). Coming of Age in Shanghai: Migrant kids, Mobility and Aspirations. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2020). We have many options, but they are all bad options!» Aspirations among internal migrant youths in Shanghai, China. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2020). Enclave Urbanism in Shanghai. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2020). Secondary Migration for Secondary Education’: Motivations and Mobilities Among Chinese Migrant Youths. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2019). The Cultural Production of the ‘Quality Citizen’: Internalisation, Appropriation and Re-configuration of Suzhi Discourse Among Migrant Youths in Shanghai, China. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2018). ‘Becoming No One: Are Apathetic Youths Really a Problem?’. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2018). A Call For The Study of Young People on the New Silk Roads. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2018). ‘Cultivating Quality with Chalk': Increasing Differences in the Chinese Educational System. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2018). From Victims to Winners: National and Transnational Student Migration in China. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2016). Back to the Future: Space, Time and Educational Choice-making Among Internal Migrant Youths in China’. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2015). Back to the Future’: How ideas of time and space figure in the educational decisions of Chinese migrant youths’. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2015). 'Back to the Future’: Towards an Understanding of Migrant Youth's Aspirations Through Spatial and Temporal Imaginaries. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2015). ‘A Place of One’s Own: Encounters Between a Young Researcher and Young Informants’. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2014). Tilbake til Fremtiden’: Migrantungdom, utdannelse og fremtidsdrømmer i Shanghai, Kina. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2014). ‘Secondary Migration for Secondary Education’: Motivations and Mobilities Among Internal Migrant Youths in and outside of Shanghai’. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2014). Educational Negotiations of Citizenship by Internal Migrant Youths. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2014). 'Not just a kid’: a discussion of categories of age in relation to research with young people. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2013). Negotiations Between the Educational Opportunities and Aspirations of Internal Migrant Youths in Shanghai. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2013). "Vois Sur Ton Chemin" avec Les Choristes. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2013). Negotiating Educational Desire: Experiences of Belonging, Aspiring and Coming of Age as Migrant Youths in Shanghai. (external link)

Book review

• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2023). Charlotte Bruckermann (2019) ‘Claiming Homes: Confronting Domicide in Rural China’. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2023). Charlotte Bruckermann Claiming Homes: Confronting Domicide in Rural China. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2013). Mette Halskov Hansen og Tune Svarverud (red.) iChina: The rise of the individual in modern Chinese society. (external link)

Lecture

• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2021). Skilling Dragons and Rats: A comparison of Suzhi Education in Shanghai’s Schools. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2015). Negotiating Educational Desire: Migrant Youths and Aspirations in Shanghai, China. (external link)

Popular scientific lecture

• Kaland, Ole Johannes; Marinaccio, Julia Christine; Midford, Paul et al. (2021). China's Iron Grip on Hong Kong and the New Line Towards Taiwan. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes; Kvamstø, Nils Gunnar (2019). Klimaforskning med verdens største forurenser: Hvilken effekt har Kinas ambisiøse klimatiltak og restriktive utslippspolitikk?. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes; Adiljan, Abdurihim; Wellens, Koen et al. (2018). Re-education. Surveillance, repression and forced assimilation of minorities in today’s China. (external link)

Feature article

• Baldomir, Andrea Margarita; Kaland, Ole Johannes; Mjøs, Marit et al. (2020). Bryter Dagen god presseskikk?. (external link)
• Vedøy, Gunn; Mjøs, Marit; Baldomir, Andrea Margarita et al. (2020). NLA Høgskolens skjulte læreplan. (external link)

Academic article

• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2020). “We have many options, but they are all bad options!”: Aspirations among internal migrant youths in Shanghai, China. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2019). The cultural production of the ‘quality citizen’: internalisation, appropriation and re-configuration of suzhi discourse among migrant youths in Shanghai, China. (external link)
• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2012). Researcher or Teacher? Reflections on Negotiated Roles in the Field.. (external link)

Academic anthology/Conference proceedings

• Kaland, Ole Johannes (2016). ‘Awkward Encounters’: Authenticity and Artificiality in Rapport with Young Informants. In: ALLERTON, C. (ed.) Etnographic Encounters: Children. London, New York: Bloomsbury.. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Ole Johannes is currently affiliate researcher on the Urban Enclaving Futures project, and undertaking anthropological fieldwork in Shanghai.