Dr Linzhi Zhang

Received training in three countries, I am happily pursuing my passions in both sociology and art. Working at the intersection of cultural and economic sociology, my research adopts a cultural approach to labour studies with a focus on creativity and work in contemporary China. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, my work provides a comprehensive analysis of how norms, institutions, social networks, and global capitalism shape cultural production and labour practices in China.

Research Interests

Artistic labour, art institutions, cultural production, social theories

Research Projects

Artists as Labouring Bodies in a Productivist China (funded by the British Academy, 2020-2024)
The project looks at artists' engagement with the demanding work culture in China, which I conceptualise as "post-socialist productivism". While artists rely on the commodification of art for income, they actively rebel against the demanding work culture. The project examines the socio-economic barriers within artistic careers, the gendered organisation of labour, and the persistent pressures of the state-imposed work ethic, while also recounting the artists' ongoing struggles for more equitable and fulfilling creative lives against the country’s demanding work culture.

Teaching

SOC7

MPhil Supervision

Publications

Books

Zhang, L. Forthcoming. Making Contemporary Art in China: Creations and Careers through Exhibitions. Oxford University Press (contract signed)

Book Chapters

Zhang, L. Forthcoming. The Artist without Work: A Critique of the Capitalist Work Ethic, The Routledge Companion to Art and Capitalism, edited by Danielle Child (invited by the editor)

Zhang, L. (2020). The Diffusion of Galleries in China: 1991 – 2016, in A. Glauser, P. Holder, T. Mazzurana, O. Moeschler & V. Rolle (Ed.), The Sociology of Arts and Markets: New Developments and Persistent Patterns. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Zhang, L., Qu, Y., Cao, X., and Guo, K. (2013). Rural migrants as marginalised citizens: a report on dealers in fake invoices near Xizhimen metro station, in Q. Li & H. Wang (Ed.), Urban Sociology: Beijing City Social Life Survey (pp. 378 - 388). Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press. (in Chinese)

Articles

Zhang, L. Forthcoming. Alternative Labour: Chinese Women Artists’ Marxist Feminist Critique of Postsocialist Work, China Information

Zhang, L. (2022). Scenography and the Production of Artworks in Contemporary Art. Cultural Sociology, 17(2), 179–203. Award the SAGE Prize for Innovation/Excellence 2024

Other

Zhang, L. (2022). Book Review: Minor China: Method, Materialism, and the Aesthetic, by H. Yapp. China Perspectives, 80-81.

Zhang, L. (2020). Interview with Wang Huangsheng. Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, 7(1), pp. 149-163.

Zhang, L. (2016). Book Review: Between State and Market: Chinese Contemporary Art in the Post-Mao Era, by J. DeBevoise. China Information, 30(1), 101-102.

Grants and Projects

Feb-Mar 2024 Visiting fellowship, ANU Australian Centre on China in the World, AUD 9,000

Sep 2020-Mar 2024 British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, salaries and research expenses

2017 Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust, awarded for research excellence, £2,000

Research Groups & Affiliations

Co-convener of the Sociology of Arts study group, British Sociological Association

Awards

2024 Cultural Sociology SAGE Prize for Innovation/Excellence