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Johan Olsen

Norwegian political scientist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ548695 ↗
Source-derived summary

Johan Peder Olsen (born August 14, 1939) is a Norwegian political scientist, and professor emeritus in political science at the University of Bergen, known for his work on new institutionalism.

Life and work

Olsen obtained his MA in political science, with a minor in economics and political history, at the University of Oslo in 1967. In 1971 he obtained his PhD at the University of Bergen. He obtained an honorary doctorate from the Åbo Akademi, Finland in, 1988, from the University of Copenhagen in 1990. and from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2003.

Olsen has started his career as journalist and reporter for various Norwegian newspapers from 1958 to 1963. He started his academic career as research assistant at the Institute of Political Science of the University of Oslo in 1965. In 1969 he was appointed assistant professor at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Bergen, in 1970 associate professor, and in 1973 professor in public administration and organization theory until 1993.

Olsen was also member of the Norwegian Research Council, and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He established ARENA (Advanced Research on the Europeanization of the Nation State) in 1994.

Editorial summary

“Johan Olsen” enters the record as norwegian political scientist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Johan, Olsen and Norwegian can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1939, 1967, 1971, 1988—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1939-08-14, 1939-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Johan, Olsen and Norwegian.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Johan Olsen” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Johan, Olsen and Norwegian provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q548695. VIAF identifies the subject as 72461741. The Library of Congress control number is n80063115. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 1967, 1971 and 1988.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Johan Olsen”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Johan Olsen primary sources, Johan Olsen archive and Johan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Johan Olsen”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Johan Olsen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.