About Jacques van Doorn

Levien Willemse

About Prof. Dr J.A.A. van Doorn

Jacobus Adrianus Antonius (Jacques) van Doorn obtained his HBS degree in Maastricht. He went on to study social geography at the University of Amsterdam. Between 1947 and 1950 he fulfilled his military service in Indonesia. In 1951 he finished his studies. He completed his PhD in the sociology of organisation. His doctoral thesis consisted of a historical analysis of the development of a military organisation and its influence on the sociology of organisation.

In 1958 Mr van Doorn became an endowed professor at the University of Leiden. He also worked as the director of the Instituut voor Sociaal Onderzoek van het Nederlandse Volk, a social research institute. In 1959 he published the book ‘Modern Sociology’, together with Cor Lammers. This influential textbook was used until the end of the eighties (15th print). Within the discipline it was perceived as an essential book for those studying sociology as a science. In 1960 van Doorn started working at the Erasmus University. He took the helm of the construction of the new social sciences faculty and its sociology study. Once firmly established, he started the magazine Beleid en Maatschappij (Policy and Society) of which he became the editor in chief, a position he held for over 15 years. 

Next to his position at the Erasmus University he served as an associate professor at the Royal Military Academy in Breda. In addition, he was a member of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, the Dutch Royal Academy of Science. For 25 years, Dr. Van Doorn was connected to the Erasmus University Rotterdam as a professor in Sociology. In 1987 he left the Erasmus University. In the ensuing years, he continued his work as a columnist for various newspapers. Furthermore, he published many books in those years among which the De laatste eeuw van Indië, 1994 (The last century of India, 1994); Indische lessen, 1995 (Indonesian lessons, 1995), Duits Socialisme, 2007 (German Socialism, 2007) and posthumous Nederlandse Democratie, 2009 (Dutch Democracy, 2009). Professor Van Doorn passed away on the 14th of May 2008 at the age of 83, after a short period of illness. 

In Memoriam by Professor Han Entzinger, chairman Sociology EUR, May 2008.

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