Faculty Author Appearance with Carolyn Hsu

Thursday, November 15
Start Time: 4:00 PM

Carolyn Hsu, Associate Professor of Sociology at Colgate, will discuss her book Creating Market Socialism: How Ordinary People Are Shaping Class and Status in China.

In Creating Market Socialism, Hsu demonstrates the central role of ordinary people—rather than state or market elites—in creating new institutions for determining status in China.  Hsu’s ethnographic research, conducted in the city of Harbin in northwestern China, included participant observation at twenty workplaces and interviews with working adults from a range of professions. By analyzing the shared stories about status and class, jobs and careers, and aspirations and hopes that circulate among Harbiners from all walks of life, Hsu reveals the logic underlying the emerging stratification system.