Qiong (Miranda) Wu

Ph.D. Candidate

M.A., 2012, Sociology, Western Michigan University
B.A., 2010, History, Shanghai University, China

Research Interests:

Stratification and Inequality, Immigration and Globalization, Work and Labor Markets, Urban Sociology, Demography, Quantitative Methods, China Studies

My research interests span a broad range of topics in the China and United States. Growing up in China during the economic transformation toward capitalism, my personal experience inspired me to understand the structures, dynamics, and mechanisms that underlie inequalities in transitional China. My dissertation focuses on the hukou system (a traditional Chinese stratification form based on place of origin) and class structure contribute to social inequalities and labor market outcomes in transitional China. During the transformation towards a market economy, the hukou system and class structure have undergone substantial changes. Yet in general, scholars have failed to capture the changing patterns in the Chinese hukou system, and examine the extent to which stratification theories for Western societies can be applied to understand stratification in China under state capitalism. To fill the gap, I develop a systematic typology for hukou stratification system based on four dimensions and propose a hybrid class system mixing capitalist features with aspects of the previous socialist class system to understand the dynamic process of stratification in transitional China. As an immigrant studying in the U.S., I also work on the themes of immigration, work, and occupations in the United States. I am particularly interested in examining these processes in the urban context. In this portion of my research agenda, I explore how the surge of immigrants has transformed the social and economic fabric of American society and the impact of the Great Recession on the U.S. metropolitan labor market.