Erik Ringmar

Erik Ringmar
Born	December 10, 1960(1960-12-10) Luleå, Sweden
Residence	China, PRC
Nationality	Swedish
Fields	International Relations Political Science Cultural Sociology
Institutions	Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China
Alma mater	Yale University, New Haven, USA Uppsala University, Sweden
Doctoral advisor	Alexander Wendt Alessandro Pizzorno James C. Scott

Erik Ringmar (Chinese: 林瑞谷; pinyin: Línruìgǔ), a Swedish academic, is Zhi Yuan Chair Professor professor of International Relations at Shanghai Jiaotong University, China. He graduated with a PhD from the Department of Political Science, Yale University, in 1993. Between 1995 and 2007 he was a senior lecturer in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics, United Kingdom, and until 2010 professor in Social and Cultural Studies at National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. Ringmar is a Faculty Associate of the Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University.

Ringmar is married to Diane Pranzo and together they have four daughters. In the summer of 2008 he underwent successful cancer surgery, an experience which he chronicled online.

Writings

Ringmar's writings cover international relations theory, history, and cultural and economic sociology. His first book, Identity, Interest and Action, focuses on the concept of recognition and discusses the Swedish intervention into the Thirty Years War as a matter of the creation of a Swedish identity. The Mechanics of Modernity discusses the origin of modern societies as a consequence of the interaction between institutions that allow reflection, entrepreneurship and the resolution of conflicts, and compares the development of Europe and East Asia. Surviving Capitalism, addresses the pathologies of capitalist development and the need for protection of social relationships and values. His most recent book, Liberal Barbarism, concerns European imperialism in China in the 19th century and the destruction of Yuanmingyuan, the Old Summer Palace of the Chinese emperor. In addition, Ringmar has published articles on metaphor, the problems of historiography, international law, narrative theory and the ontology of international politics. Together with Jorg Kustermans he is in the process of writing a book about boredom and war in modern society. Ringmar's books have been translated into Chinese and Korean.

Free speech and bloggers' rights

During his tenure at the London School of Economics, Ringmar received media attention after discussing the quality of the teaching at the School in his personal blog. In various posts he highlighted the fact that staff often was too busy with research to care about undergraduate teaching and pointed out that teaching primarily was done by PhD students. The subsequent attempt by the LSE Director, Howard Davies, to force Ringmar to "take down and destroy" his blog received national headlines. Ringmar detailed his experience of the incident in the book, A Blogger's Manifesto: Free Speech and Censorship in the Age of the Internet. In the spring of 2008, Ringmar again attracted attention by advocating the "liberation of old papers" from non-free on-line sites.

Bibliography

• Ringmar, Erik (2008) [1996]. Identity, Interest and Action: A Cultural Explanation of Sweden's Intervention in the Thirty Years War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://www.amazon.com/Identity-Interest-Action-Explanation-Intervention/dp/0521026032/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268519163&sr=8-5. 

• Ringmar, Erik (2009) [2005]. The Mechanics of Modernity in Europe and East Asia: Institutional Origins of Social Change and Stagnation. London: Routledge. http://www.amazon.com/Mechanics-Modernity-Europe-East-Asia/dp/0415547709/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268519163&sr=8-8. 
• Ringmar, Erik (2005). Surviving Capitalism: How We Learned to Live with the Market and Remained Almost Human. London: Anthem Press. http://www.archive.org/download/SurvivingCapitallismHowWeLearnedToLiveWithTheMarketAndRemained/ErikRingmarSurvivingCapitalism.pdf. 

• Ringmar, Erik (2007). A Blogger's Manifesto: Free Speech and Censorship in the Age of the Internet. London: Anthem Press. http://www.archive.org/download/ABloggersManifestoFreeSpeechAndCensorshipInTheAgeOfTheInternet/ErikRingmarABloggersManifesto.pdf. 

External links

• Personal web pages
• Erik Ringmar, My Open Day Speech, February 2006;
• Erik Ringmar, My Cancer Diary.