Research Project

I study the political and economic transition in China by interpreting the changing meanings of automobiles and mobilities for the nation and its people. More specifically, I ask how people’s lives were altered by the growth of the Chinese automobile industry and, in turn, how they have made meaning of cars and their personal and social mobilities when manufacturing and consuming automobiles. Empirically, my research addresses this interplay between automobiles and the complex experiences of individual and societal mobility through a sectoral, political sociology analysis and ethnographic research with automobile industry engineers and managers in China.