Dr Jieyu Liu wins Annual SAGE Current Sociology Best Paper Prize

Dr Jieyu Liu, Deputy Director of the SOAS China Institute, is one of two academics to win the Annual SAGE Current Sociology Best Paper Prize. This is a new prize starting with Volume 70 in 2022.

Dr Liu’s paper on “Childhood in urban China: A three-generation portrait” was among the five shortlisted from a longlist put together by Current Sociology’s Editorial Board. The prize awards an outstanding paper from the year published in Current Sociology, for its originality, innovation, significance and influence in the field. Current Sociology is the official journal of International Sociological Association which covers members from 126 countries across the globe.

Dr Liu said: “I am very honoured to win the Sage Best Paper Prize. My paper draws upon life history interview data from a large multi-year project funded by European Research Council (ERC). I owe a great debt not just to the ERC, but in particular all the interviewees who participated. The kindness of these interviewees provided me with a fantastic opportunity to understand the lives of ordinary people over time in China and to explore the complex changes and continuities in family life”.

Her article examines how the experience of childhood has changed in urban China against the backdrop of the wider political, social and economic transformations in the 20th century. Drawing on 95 life history interviews in three urban sites in China, it explores the nature, origins and impact of continuities and changes in childhood experiences across three generations.

The editors commented: ‘Jieyu Liu’s study of childhood across generations provides a sensitive and nuanced analysis that challenges ideas about individualization and industrialization in the shaping of family lives’.