Professor Jane Duckett
- Professor - Edward Caird Chair of Politics (Political & International Studies)
telephone:
+44 (0)141 330 2871
email:
Jane.Duckett@glasgow.ac.uk
R1202 Level 12, Adam Smith Building, Glasgow G12 8RT
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5401-5350Biography
Jane Duckett is Edward Caird Chair of Politics and Director of the Scottish Centre for China Research at the University of Glasgow. She is a Fellow of the British Academy (2016), the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2019), and the Academy of Social Sciences (2019). She is also a Guest Professor at Nankai University (Tianjin, China). In 2012 she received the Lord Provost of Glasgow Education Award. From 2014–2017 she was President of the British Association for Chinese Studies.
Prof Duckett's early research on the Chinese state under market reform included a book-length study, The Entrepreneurial State in China (Routledge, 1998). Since then, her research has been concerned with Chinese public policy. She has argued through studies of social welfare, poverty, unemployment and health policies, that the politics behind them and their enormous redistributive consequences made them central to the Chinese state’s post-Mao marketising project. Her monograph, The Chinese State’s Retreat from Health: Policy and the Politics of Retrenchment (Routledge, hdbk 2011; pbk 2013) drew on comparative political theory to explain the Chinese state’s retrenchment in health care provision between the 1980s and 2003. She co-edited (with Beatriz Carrillo), China’s Changing Welfare Mix: Local Perspectives (Routledge, 2011), a book that investigated China’s evolving social welfare provision. She has also published papers on the Chinese media's reporting of health reform, on public participation in policymaking in China, on how health care provision contributes to the Chinese Communist Party regime's legitimacy and on the influence of international ideas on domestic Chinese policy making.
Her most recent project, 'COVID-19: Understanding the Chinese Government's Containment Measures and their Societal Impacts,' was funded by the UK's National Institute for Health Research and the Medical Research Council. Articles from that project include a piece co-authored with Meixuan Chen and William Wang on China's handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic. She is currently researching the Chinese Communist Party's 'common prosperity' agenda.
Prof Duckett is a graduate of the University of Leeds and of SOAS, University of London. She studied at Fudan University in Shanghai (1984–5 and 1987–8) and at Nankai University in Tianjin (1992–3). In the late 1980s she worked in the Shanghai office of the American law firm, Paul Weiss. Before moving to Glasgow she worked at the University of Manchester and the University of York.
Prof Duckett has worked in China as a policy and social development consultant on a number of international aid projects. Her research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research, The Leverhulme Trust, British Council, British Academy, and the European Commission.
Able to comment for the media on
- Chinese politics and society, especially health, poverty and inequality.
- China's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Chinese social policy, including 'common prosperity'.
Selected research contribution and service (University of Glasgow)
- Director, Scottish Centre for China Research (2008–).
- Research convener and REF Champion (2019–2022).
- International Dean (East Asia) for the University of Glasgow (2014–18).
- Director, University of Glasgow Confucius Institute (2011–2014).
- Dean for Research, Faculty of Social Sciences (2010).
Selected research contribution and service (external/international)
- Council member, Economic and Social Research Council (2021–).
- Member, International Scientific Council, MERICS (Mercator Institute for China Studies) (2021–).
- Panel member, Subpanel 19 (Politics and International Studies), REF2021 (2020–22).
- Trustee, Swire Chinese Language Foundation (2017–).
- Member of the AREA-Ruhr International Scientific Advisory Board (2016–2020).
- President of The British Association for Chinese Studies (2014–2017).
- Panel member, Subpanel 27 (Area Studies), REF2014 (2011–14).
- Chair of the Social Sciences Sub-panel, Hong Kong Research Grants Council (2011–14).
- Member of the Executive Committee and Editorial Board of The China Quarterly (2011–2021).
- Co-editor of Politics, a journal of the UK Political Studies Association (2006–11).
- Member of the editorial boards of The Journal of Asian Public Policy, Europe-Asia Studies, and East Asia: An International Quarterly.
Research interests
Prof Duckett's research interests are in contemporary Chinese politics, particularly the redistributive consequences of China's health and social policies, and in policy making in this authoritarian political system.
Research groups
- Politics
Grants
UKRI NIHR & MRC, 'Covid-19: Understanding Chinese Government Containment Measures and their Societal Impacts', PI, with Ana Langer, Yajun Bao, Yingru Li, Holly Snape, Ting Luo, Hua Wang, Bastian Struve, Weinan Wang, Aofei Lv, Meixuan Chen, Hairong Wang. £333,963, 2020–2022.
ESRC & NSFC, 'Remaking Urban Neighbourhoods in China', with Ya Ping Wang (PI), Keith Kintrea, Rebecca Madgin, Julie Miao, Jing Yao and a team at Nankai University led by Sun Tao. £1 million (FEC), 2016–18.
European Commission Marie Curie Fellowship, ‘Direct Elections China'. With L. Dong. £237,023, 2015–17.
ESRC, ‘Expanding, Not Shrinking Social Programmes: The Politics of New Policies to Tackle Poverty and Inequality in Brazil, India, China and South Africa’, ES/J012629/1. With James Manor (PI), Jude Howell, Anthony Pereira and Louise Tillin. £327,597 (FEC), 2012–16.
ESRC, ‘Rising Powers: Unequal Powers, Authoritarian Powers, Unstable Powers?.’ With Stephen White (PI), Neil Munro, and Ian McAllister. £577,174 (FEC), 2012–2016.
ESRC, ‘Performance evaluations, trust and utilization of health care in China: understanding relationships between attitudes and health-related behaviour’, ES/J011487/1. PI, with Co-Is Kate Hunt, Neil Munro, Matt Sutton. £508,678 (FEC), 2012–2015.
Hangzhou Development Research Centre, 'Local "Participatory Democracy" in China' (with Zhu Guanglei and Sun Tao), £10,000, 2011–2012.
RCUK Roberts Funding,'Publishing in Chinese Studies', a graduate research student and early career research training workshop organised by the Scottish Centre for Chinese Social Science Research Postgraduate Network, £1,950, 2010.
Adam Smith Research Foundation Seedcorn Fund, 'Media Reporting of China's Health Reforms, 2005-09' (with Ana Langer), £2,800, 2009–2011.
Universities China Committee (London), 'The Lessons of UK Health Reform for China', £1,450, 2006–07.
Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship, ‘Non-governmental organisations and the making of health policy in China’. £18,710, 2006-07.
ESRC, 'Public attitudes to openness in East Asia and East Europe' (PI, with W. L. Miller), £244,943, 2002–2005.
Scottish Funding Council, Chinese Studies Strategic Change Grant (Associate Director of Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow joint programme), £780,000 (of which £90,000 for own contribution), 2000–05.
British Academy, 'Health Systems Reform: Financing and Governance', International workshop,£5,400, 1999–2000.
European Commission EU-China Research Fellowship Fund, 'The Political Economy of Health Insurance Reform in China', €3,250, 1999.
British Council, 'China's Welfare Reforms: Health and Maternity Insurance System Restructuring', Academic Link with China Scheme, £21,000, 1997–2000.
British Academy, 'Economic Liberalisation and the Politics of Welfare Reform in Urban China', £3,430, 1997.
Faculty of Economic and Social Studies, University of Manchester, 'Economic Liberalisation and the Politics of Wefare Reform in Urban China', £3,290, 1996–7.
British Council, Scholarship for doctoral research fieldwork in China, 1992–3.
ESRC Doctoral studentship, 'Urban government under market reform', 1991–4.
Supervision
PhD supervision
Jane is an experienced supervisor. She welcomes enquiries and applications from students interested in doctoral research projects in contemporary Chinese government and public policy - e.g. health, education or anti-poverty policy. Applicants will need very good Chinese and English language skills, as well as training in contemporary Chinese studies or social science research. Jane's doctoral students benefit from a lively and welcoming research environment that includes the Scottish Centre for China Research.
- Edwards, David
Towards a Postcolonial Ecology: A Transfigurative Analysis of the ‘Critical Zone’ in China - Xie, Zihui
The Politics of China’s Pension System Reform in Government and Public Institutions - Zheng, Congwei
Study on the phenomenon of surrogacy among gay men in China
Jane's previous doctoral students have researched China’s village elections (Dr Wang Guohui, now Assistant Professor at Tianjin Normal University), environmental politics (Dr Tom Johnson, now a Lecturer at the University of Sheffield), social policy (Dr Daniel Hammond, now a Senior Lecturer at University of Edinburgh), foreign economic policy in the ASEAN region (Dr Ariel Hui-min Ko, who went on to become a research associate at National Cheng-Chi University, Taipei), and UK SMEs doing business in China (Dr Carole Couper, now a Lecturer at Sheffield University), Chinese health politics (Dr Aofei Lv, who went on to a postdoctoral position at the University of Amsterdam), and Chinese non-local chambers of commerce (Dr Hua Wang, now a Lecturer at the University of Glasgow).
Teaching
Undergraduate teaching
- Level 2B: Comparative Politics (China case study).
- Chinese Politics (Honours).
Postgraduate teaching
- Communist Regimes (from 2025–26).
Research datasets
Additional information
Selected recent lectures and presentations
‘China’s 21st Century Socio-economic Development: Towards “Common Prosperity”?’ Annual lecture of the Scotland China Education Network, Royal Society of Edinburgh, 20 June 2024.
‘Social policies under Hu and Xi: from Segmentation to Stalled Integration’, Conference on ‘China: Fiscal Policies for the New Era’, East Asia Institute, National University of Singapore, 11–13 January 2023 (online).
'Pandemic Politics: What Have We Learned?' International Science Council, 21 November, 2021 (online).
'The Communist Party of China: internal reforms and legitimacy'. All-Party Parliamentary Group on China (Westminster, UK) on the CCP at 100, 15 June 2021 (online).
'COVID-19: The Chinese government's containment measures.' World Health Organisation’s Social Sciences Working Group, 21 July, 2020.
Keynote lecture at the Nordic Association for China Studies Annual Conference, University of Bergen, 13–14 June 2019.
'Explaining China's Social Welfare Development.' Keynote lecture at a conference on ‘Towards a new Chinese Welfare State – Perceptions of Distributive Justice in China’, Fafo, Oslo, 12–14 September 2018.
‘Explaining China’s 21st century social policies.’ Politics and International Relations seminar, University of Cambridge, 9 May 2018.
'China's Health System Challenges.' Guest Lecture at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University, 27 March, 2018.
'International Influences on domestic Policy Making in China.’ Chun Tu-Hsueh Distinguished Lecture, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, 26 January, 2018.
