Profile

Biography

Kristian Berg Harpviken is a senior researcher and a deputy director at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO). He is a sociologist from the University of Oslo. His doctoral dissertation focuses on the micro-foundations of forced migration, applying a network perspective on the study of decision-making, impacts on the home community, and repatriation.

Harpviken has also worked on civil society, transnationalism, political mobilization as well as a variety of issues related to post-war reconstruction and peacebuilding. Harpviken has published 16 academic articles and a number of reports and press commentaries, in addition to being widely used as a media commentator and as a lecturer.

He is the leader of the working group on Transnational and International Facets of Civil War within PRIO's Centre for the Study of Civil War.

Career

Research

Current projects

• Transnational mobilization and civil war
• War-related migration and social networks
• Regional (in-)security
• Peacebuilding and peacemaking
• Methodology in contexts of crisis and conflict
• Geographical focus on Afghanistan and its neighborhood.

Publications

Selected publications

Books and reports

• Borchgrevink, Kaja & Kristian Berg Harpviken, 2010. 'Afghanistan’s Religious Landscape: Politicising the Sacred', Noref Policy Brief. Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg, 2010. 'Afghanistan in a Neighborhood Perspective: General Overview and Conceptualization', report to Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Oslo: PRIO
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg, 2009. Social Networks and Migration in Wartime Afghanistan. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
• Wimpelmann Chaudhary, Torunn; Aziz Hakimi, Kristian Berg Harpviken, Akbar Sarwari & Arne Strand, 2009. 'Conciliatory Approaches to the Insurgency in Afghanistan: An Overview', CMI Report. Bergen: Chr. Michelsen Institute
• Wimpelmann Chaudhary, Torunn; Kristian Berg Harpviken, Akbar Sarwari & Arne Strand, 2008. 'Applied Social Science Research in Afghanistan: An Overview of the Institutional Landscape', CMI Report. Bergen: Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI)
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg & Kjell Erling Kjellman, 2008. 'Avtale om klasevåpen' [Treaty on Cluster Munitions], Hvor hender det? Oslo: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)
• Strand, Arne; Arghawan Akbari, Torunn Wimpelmann Chaudhary, Kristian Berg Harpviken & Akbar Sarwari, 2008. 'Return in Dignity, Return to What? Review of Voluntary Return Programme to Afghanistan', CMI Report. Bergen: Chr. Michelsen Institute

Articles

• Borchgrevink, Kaja & Kristian Berg Harpviken, 2010. 'Teaching Religion, Taming Rebellion', PRIO Policy Brief 7, Oslo: PRIO.
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg, 2010. 'Troubled Regions and Failing States: Introduction', Comparative Social Research 27: 1–23.
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg, 2010. 'Caught in the Middle: Regional Perspectives on Afghanistan', Comparative Social Research 27: 277–305.
• Baev, Pavel K., 2010. 'Re-examining the 'Colour Revolutions': The Turn of the Tide from Belgrade to Ulan Bator', Comparative Social Research 27: 249–276.
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg, 2010. 'Verden er ikke tryggere' [The World is Not Safer], Aftenposten, 13 July.
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg & Arne Strand, 2010. 'Tid for linjeskifte', Aftenposten, 3 July.
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg, 2010. 'Det norske fredsarbeidet' [The Norwegian Peace Effort], Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen, 15 June.

Other

• Harpviken, Kristian Berg, ed., 2010. Comparative Social Research 27, 2010.
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg, 2010. 'Refugee Return and Violence in Afghanistan', presented at ISA Annual Convention 2010, New Orleans, LO, 17 February.
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg, 2010. Review of, 'Sosial kapital på skandinavisk' [Social Capital in Scandinavian] in Sosiologisk Tidsskrift 18(1): 95–100.
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg & Sarah Lischer, 2009. 'Refugee Return and Violence: An Analytical Framework', presented at Mobilizing Across Borders: Transnational Mechanisms of Civil War, the School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, 16 October.
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg, 2009. 'Afghanistan and its Troublesome Neighbourhood', presented at Simons Series in the Social Dynamics of Peace and Conflict, Simon Fraser University, School for International Studies, Vancouver, 14 October.
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg, 2009. 'Forskningsetiske dilemmaer: Fra forskerens dømmekraft til institusjonalisert kontroll?' [Dilemmas of Research Ethics: Between Researchers' Judgement and Institutionalized Control], presented at Ta etikken tilbake! [Take back the ethics!], Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo, Lysebu, Oslo, 4 May.
• Harpviken, Kristian Berg, 2009. 'Development and Conflict: Perpetuating Factors', presented at Development and Conflict, hosted by PRIO and the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi, India, 17 April.