Middle Class on the Move: Lifestyle, Gender, and Culture

RESEARCH WORKSHOP
5th- 6th of December 2018

BACKGROUND AND AIMS OF THE WORKSHOP

The workshop is the 3rd and last in a workshop series of three. The 1st workshop was convened in Beijing in December 2017 and the 2nd took place at the University of Copenhagen in October 2018.

The aims of all three workshops have been to widen the scope of class analysis related to an emerging middle class in China and to include comparative perspectives. More particularly the intention has been to explore the emerging Chinese middle class from new angels with a focus on social, institutional and cultural dynamics through which the urban Chinese middle classes and their new lifestyles have been constructed and intimately entangled.

This 3rd workshop has been co organized by CASS, The University of Copenhagen and the Sino Danish University Centre (SDC) in Beijing. CASS and SDC has provided both financial support for this workshop.


THEMES OF THE 3RD WORKSHOP

Topics to be addressed at this 3rd workshop include various intersections of class formation and practices including the making of the middle class and middle class masculinity, homes, housing as well as class and gender in art, consumption and social media, and sports.

The participants are distinguished junior and senior scholars from China

PROGRAM


The workshop will start in the late afternoon of December 5th and go on as a one day workshop at
December 6th 2018.

DECEMBER 5TH

16.00 Arrival and Tea for early birds
(You can arrive at the SDC building before 5 pm, and after 5 pm at the UCAS Conference Centre. Please inform the organizers about your arrival time at email: hrc@soc.ku.dk)

18.00 Dinner at the Swan Lake Hotel, followed by an evening workshop session

  • Introduction to Middle class on the move past, present and future, by the organizers.
  • Cancan Wang: Affordable distinction: Comparison study of middle-class art consumption in China and
    Denmark.


DECEMBER 6TH

Venue: SDC Center, Sino Danish Centre for Education and Research, SDC Building

9.00 – 12.00 : Keynote speeches for participants and SDC students and staff

  • 9.00 – 9.45: Professor Li Chungling, the Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social
    Sciences: Rising Middle Class in China. Growth and Challenges.
  • 10.00 - 10.45: Associate professor Derek Hird, Lancaster University, UK: Middle class men
    and masculinities in contemporary China?
  • 11.00 - 11.45: Professor Jihua Lu, Peking University: Class, Care and Generation in China:
    Changing Norms of Eldercare Responsibilities across Generations.

12.00 - 13.00: Lunch

13.00 – 14.00: Class, Generation and Body

  • 13.00 - 13.30: Assistant Professor Cancan Wang, IT University, Denmark: Why 27?
    Leftover women revisited through the lens of class, generation and body
  • 13.30 - 14.00: Assistant professor Quingyu Song, Peking University: Body Management of
    Middle Class. Running as an example.


14.30 – 15.30: Gendering homes and home ownership

  • 14.30 - 15.00: Associate professor Chen Meng and Yu Fangfang, Shanghai University: A
    Room of One’s Own? Gender Differences in Home Ownership in Urban China
  • 15.00 – 15.30: Hilda Rømer Christensen: Materialized practices and middle class homes in
    Beijing.

16.00 – 17.00: New forms of consumption and communication

  • 16.00 – 16.30: Dr. Wang Yixuan, the Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social
    Sciences: Middle Class and Luxurious consumption.
  • 16.30 – 17.00: Dr. Guo Jing. Chinese University of Communication, Beijing: Middle class
    on/in social media.

17.00 - 17.30: What is new and what is next? Winding up by the organizers.

ORGANIZERS AND CO-OPERATIONS

The workshops have continued and deepened the lively co-operation between Chinese and Danish institutions in recent years. The co-operation include joined activities between Fudan University, Peking University, the Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Department of Sociology at University of Copenhagen.