Prof Youbin Kang
Assistant Professor
9.19, 9/F., The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus
Youbin Kang is an assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong thinking about how global circuits of capital and technology relates to the world of work, urban infrastructure, regulation, and collective life. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative comparative historical research methods in the United States and Asia, Kang’s work has appeared in journals such as Social Problems, Socio-Economic Review, and the International Labour Review and in public outlets such as N+1, Jacobin, and Lux Magazine. Prior to joining HKU, they held postdoctoral fellowships at the City College of New York (CUNY), Cornell University, an adjunct professorship at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, and several consultancy positions with the International Labour Organization.
PhD, University of Wisconsin – Madison
MPhil, University of Cambridge
BA, Brown University
BFA, Rhode Island School of Design
Comparative & Historical Sociology; Community & Urban Sociology; Global and Transnational Studies; Labor and Labor movements; Race, Class, Gender; Sociological Theory; Socio-Legal Studies; East and Southeast Asia; Science and Technology Studies
They are currently working on their book project based on their dissertation completed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which is about the puzzle of perpetual public transit insolvency and the labor relations behind public services in New York City and Seoul. In addition, they are working on several collaborative projects, 1) on labor regulation of the immigrant workforce in the United States, 2) a historical study of public sector pensions, 3) a portrait-interview project on cohort-effects on social movements in New York City, and 4) an ongoing project on public transit automation based on an original global dataset.
Diamonstein-Spielvogel Fellowship, New York Public Library, 2025-26
Honorable Mention, Theda Skocpol Dissertation Award, ASA Comparative Historical Sociology, 2025
ASA (NSF) Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, 2023-24
Honorable Mention, Best Student Paper Award, ASA Labor and Labor Movements, 2023
Departmental Citation for Excellence in Teaching by a Lecturer, UW-Madison, 2023
Social Science Research Council (SSRC), International Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2020-21
Kang, Youbin. (2024) “Status Threat, Meritocracy, and the Politics of Solidarity in the Seoul Subway” Social Problems https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spae071
Kang, Youbin & Jungmyung Kim. (2024) “The Spectacle of Automation and Status Aspirations: The Incorporation of Driverless Metro Systems Around the World, 2008-2020” Socio-Economic Review 22(3): 969-991. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae016
Kang, Youbin(2021) “The Rise, Demise, and Replacement of the Bangladesh Experiment in Transnational Labour Regulation” International Labour Review. 160(3): 407-430. https://doi.org/10.1111/ilr.12199
Kang, Youbin(2019) “Freedom of association and collective bargaining in minority trade unions” International Labor Rights Case Law Journal 5(2): 158-163. https://doi.org/10.1163/24056901-00502007
Kang, Youbin (2026) “The Politics of Refusal in Four Strikes” forthcoming in Eli Friedman & Mingsho Ho (eds.) Worker Resistance in Postindustrial East Asia. Ithaca:Cornell University Press.
Kang, Youbin (2024) “Exorcising the Haunted Desire for Legibility in Dictée” in Valinsky R. & Jun J. (eds.) She Follows No Progression: A Theresa Hak Kyung Cha ReaderNew York: Wendy’s Subway.
Kang, Youbin(2021) “Access to justice after Rana Plaza: A preliminary assessment of grievance
procedures and the legal system in the apparel global supply chain” in: Delautre, G.,Echeverria Manrique E., Fenwick, C. (eds). Decent Work in a Globalized World: Lessons from Public and Private Initiatives. ILO: Geneva. p.265-300.