Scottish Centre for China Research

Geopolitical tensions, the Covid-19 pandemic and increasing restrictions on academic freedoms in China have led scholars to anticipate difficulties doing fieldwork-based social science research. As travel has re-opened in the last year, however, some have ventured to conduct fieldwork. This seminar will draw on the experiences of those scholars and discuss the prospects for fieldwork-based social science research in China in the short to medium term. The session will begin with brief verbal accounts by each speaker of their recent field experiences and will then open for discussion. Speakers have been asked to speak about the type of fieldwork they did and how it was arranged; to note any difficulties they encountered and how they were dealt with; and to reflect on the feasibility of doing this kind of fieldwork going forward, bearing in mind that this might vary depending on the topic of the fieldwork, the location, and/or the characteristics of the researcher (e.g. nationality, career stage, gender). Speakers: Dr Christina Maags, University of Sheffield, who in the summer of 2023 conducted fieldwork on elder care service development in Chengdu. Professor Rachel Murphy, University of Oxford, who in October 2023 conducted pilot fieldwork in Hunan on migrant families’ use of digital technologies in daily life. Dr Holly Snape, University of Glasgow, who in Spring 2023 conducted fieldwork in Beijing, Hunan and Anhui on Party regulations and “rural revitalization”. Dr Hua Wang, University of Glasgow, who in summer 2023 conducted fieldwork in Jinan and Tianjin on “Local policy experimentation with eldercare policies in urban communities”. Di Wu, PhD candidate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who recently completed one year of ethnographic fieldwork in Shanghai and Beijing on the disability rights movement. The Scottish Centre for China Research Seminar Programme gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the MacFie Bequest.

For further information, contact Professor Jane Duckett <jane.duckett@glasgow.ac.uk>

First published: 18 October 2023