Drawing on more than 100 interviews, field observations, and autoethnographic research conducted between 2015 and 2025, this talk examines changes in China’s social science community over the past decade. Following the career trajectories of early-career scholars, it explores how an oversupplied academic labour market, “up-or-out” employment systems, performance metrics, competition for research funding, and professional networks shape both academic careers and knowledge production. These findings may encourage further discussion of sociological issues such as organizational dependence, career precarity, the autonomy of the academic field, and the organization of knowledge production. The talk will be of interest to students and researchers concerned with social change in China, higher education, academic labour, and knowledge production.

About the speaker:

Weishan Miao is a Professor at Renmin University of China. He has held visiting appointments at universities and research institutions across Asia, Europe, Australia, and the United States, and has a strong interest in interdisciplinary and cross-field collaboration. His main research focuses on emerging forms of inequality at the intersection of digital media, culture, and society. For more than a decade, he has also conducted research on China’s higher education system, academic labour, and knowledge production, culminating in a monograph based on this long-term work. His research has been published in leading international journals, including Journal of Communication, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, and New Media & Society, and has received several best paper awards at major international conferences.

📅 Date: 26 October 2026 (Monday)

🕑 Time: 10:00am - 11:30am

📍 Venue: CJT-9.29

🗣️ Language: English

🔗 Register here: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=109783