| Birth Date: | 24 July 1936 |
| Birth Place: | Amsterdam |
| Nationality: | Dutch |
| Professor emeritus | |
| Discipline: | Sociology |
| Workplaces: | University of Amsterdam |
Johannes Cornelis "Jan" Breman (born 24 July 1936, in Amsterdam) is a Dutch sociologist and an emeritus professor of the University of Amsterdam.[1] He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate[2] at Institute of Social Studies (ISS) on 29 October 2009. His inaugural lecture was entitled: The Great Transformation in a Globalized Perspective.
He is a Fellow of the International Institute for Asian Studies.[2]
In 1988 Breman became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[3] He was elected a member of Academia Europaea in 1989.[4]
He has been known for the concept "footloose labour" in India. Footloose labour consists of those proletariats who are pushed out of agriculture labour market, hence depend on casual labour. They have to engage in multiple occupations to sustain themselves. Due to rural inequality they have to do seasonal migration to well off states such as Punjab and Haryana. This class of free wage labourers, especially after mid-1990s, are called "footloose labour".[5]