Thomas Mathiesen

Thomas Mathiesen (born 5 October 1933) is a Norwegian sociologist.

Mathiesen studied sociology at the University of Wisconsin (B.A. 1955). He graduated as M.A. in 1958 (major subject: sociology, minor subject: psychology and social anthropology) from the University of Oslo, where he did his doctorate in 1965. In 1972 he was appointed Professor of sociology of law at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo (emeritus 2004).

He was a visiting professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara (1967) and Berkeley (1975), the University of Tromsø (1980), also the University of Warsaw (1988) and the University of Bremen (1988).

Together with Nils Christie and Louk Hulsman he is a distinguished representative of the prison abolition movement. He writes in Norwegian and English, his books were translated into Swedish, Danish, German, Italian and Spanish and published in China.

Mathiesen was one of the inspirers of the British prisoners movement, Preservation of the Rights of Prisoners (PROP) and even spoke at their foundation meeting.^[1]

Mathiesen also presented a paper at the eleventh symposium of the National Deviancy Conference in September 1972 entitled 'Strategies of Resistance within a Total Institution'.

Publications & Articles

• Mathiesen, T. (1965) The Defences of the Weak: a Study of Norwegian Correctional Institution, London: Tavistock
• Mathiesen, T. (1972) Beyond the Boundaries of Organisations, California: Glendessary Press
• Mathiesen, T. (1974) The Politics of Abolition, London: Martin Robertson
• Mathiesen, T. (1983) "The future of control systems - the case of Norway" In: Garland, D. & Young, P. (eds) The Power to Punish, London: Heinemann
• Mathiesen, T. (1986) "The Politics of abolition", Contemporary Crises 10: 81-94

References

External links

• Thomas Mathiesen's staff page