sociology@cuhk.edu.hk
Topic: Intrahousehold Property Ownership and Family Members’ Outcomes: Evidence from the 2011 Judicial Interpretation of the Chinese Marriage Law’
Abstract:
In this talk, Professor Emma Zang will introduce multiple studies examining the impact of the 2011 judicial interpretation of the Chinese Marriage Law, which altered intrahousehold property rights, on family members’ well-being and behaviors. Although the focus on macro-level gender inequality continues, relatively few studies have focused on intrahousehold gender inequality, especially intrahousehold property ownership, in China. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies, these studies employ quasi-experimental approaches to compare the outcomes of members in households affected by the legal change with those in unaffected households. The findings show that the 2011 judicial interpretation led to diminished well-being for women in a typical Chinese household where the deed to the marital home was solely in the husband’s name. It also reduced their fertility and increased their labor force participation. In the longer term, affected couples turned to adaptive behaviors more in line with premarital agreements and traditional practices, such as transferring the family home to their children. These adaptive behaviors increased the prevalence of child homeownership, which decreased children’s undesirable behaviors such as quarreling with their parents. These studies demonstrate how a seemingly gender-neutral policy can generate gendered consequences.
Bio:
Emma Xiaolu Zang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Yale University, with secondary appointments in Biostatistics and Global Affairs. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Her research interests intersect at the nexus of health and aging, family demography, and inequality, employing advanced data science and statistical tools. She also develops and evaluates statistical methods to model trajectories and life transitions, aiming to understand health disparities from a life course perspective. Her research has received media coverage from over 100 outlets in the United States, China, South Korea, India, and Singapore, Her work has received multiple academic awards from organizations such as the American Sociological Association and IPUMS USA.
A Hybrid International Summer Forum on cybercrime, delinquency, and victimization will be held on June 14, 2024, starting at 9:00 a.m. The forum is co-organized by Utrecht University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Please find the flyer and program of the forum attached for your reference.
Event Details:
Date and Time: June 14, 2024, 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (GMT+2, CEST)
Venue: Bestuursgebouw-0.33C, Administration Building 0.33C, Utrecht University (Science Park)
Format: Hybrid (*ZOOM information will be sent upon confirmation of registration)
Registration is required
We look forward to your participation!
The Department of Sociology is pleased to announce an upcoming seminar titled “Union History and Midlife Health Outcomes,” presented by Prof. Qian Zhenchao from Brown University. This seminar is co-organized with the Center for Population Research (CPR) and the Center for Chinese Family Studies (CCFS) at CUHK.
It is scheduled to take place on Friday, 7 June 2024, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (Hong Kong Time).
The format of the seminar is face-to-face only.
Due to venue capacity restrictions, places will be reserved on a first-come-first-served basis.
We are pleased to announce a forthcoming seminar titled “The narrated emotions of femicide perpetrators in Latin America : a common emotional economy?” featuring Dr. Martín Hernán Di Marco, Postdoctoral researcher from the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, The University of Oslo. The seminar is co-organized by the Chinese Law Programme, HKIAPS, Department of Sociology, and Gender Studies Programme. It is scheduled to take place on Monday, 27 May 2024, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Hong Kong Time).
Due to the venue’s capacity restriction, on-site participants’ places will be reserved on a first-come-first-served basis.
Abstract:
While studies of femicide perpetrators have focused on background factors, such as criminal history and mental health conditions, little attention has been paid to their individual experiences. Their emotions and sense-making have often been overlooked and even dismissed. With the help of a micro-sociological approach to violence, we identify the narrated emotions involved in the perpetration of femicide. The data gathered is based on 33 open-ended interviews with convicted male perpetrators from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela. We identify four main emotions reflecting participants’ experiences of femicide: Fear, expressed through stories of women as threats to self, family and community; helplessness, expressed through stories of men being trapped, judged and persecuted; and pain, connected to stories of jealousy and belittlement. These lead to anger, expressed through stories of bodily reactions and losing control. The findings indicate femicide perpetrators resort to lethal violence to regulate self-worth and remediate actions they feel were disruptive. Consequently, this research demonstrates the importance of embodied and narrated emotions to understand the phenomenon of femicides. We argue that understanding femicide as a product of a shared pervasive emotional economy points to the role of emotions in maintaining a gendered social order.
For more details about the seminar, please refer to the attached poster.
Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor of Sociology and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies
Princeton University
The Department of Sociology is pleased to announce a forthcoming seminar titled “Marriage Exchange in China”, featuring Prof. Yu XIE. The seminar is co-organized by the Center for Population Research (CPR), CUHK. It is scheduled to take place on Thursday, 23 May 2024, from 04:00 p.m. to 05:30 p.m. (Hong Kong Time). The format of the seminar is face-to-face only. Due to the venue’s capacity restriction, participants’ places will be reserved on a first-come-first-served basis.
Abstract: In this presentation, Professor Yu XIE introduces a methodological tool, Exchange Index, for studying marriage exchange. He then presents results from two empirical studies of marriage exchange in China: beauty-status exchange and exchange of family socioeconomic status (SES) and achieved SES.
Conway-Bascom Professor of Sociology
Director, Wisconsin Russia Project (https://russiaproject.wisc.edu/)
University of Wisconsin-Madison
The Department of Sociology is pleased to announce a forthcoming seminar: Love during Wartime: Perspectives of Women in Three Ukrainian Cities Under Russia’s Full-scale Invasion, by Prof. Theodore P. Gerber.
Abstract:
As demographic research on how armed conflict affects fertility has grown, a newer literature on how war affects intimate partnerships has emerged. Most studies on this topic have analyzed post-conflict survey data from high-fertility contexts to address two themes: age at marriage and intimate partner violence. We study how armed conflict affects intimate relationships more broadly based on qualitative data collected while war is underway. We conducted 22 semi-structured, in-depth virtual interviews with women of childbearing age in Ukraine’s two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, in spring 2023, and three virtual focus groups with similar women in the same two cities and Odesa in December 2023. Both data collections took place more than one year into Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion, which has produced widespread destruction and death, driven over 7,000,000 refugees (mainly women and children) from the country, displaced millions of others internally, and shattered Ukraine’s economy. We asked informants how the full-scale war has affected their own partnerships, those of their friends, relatives, and acquaintances, as well as perceived rates of divorce and the pace and patterns of new partnerships formed. Our informants recounted diverse experiences and perspectives on others’ that illuminate variable ways that war affects relationships while it is still underway. In their accounts, some relationships are weakened by strain and physical separation, while others are strengthened as couples come together to face war-related crises. Some observe that the war intensified relationship dynamics that were muted before Russia’s full-scale attack. Informants also point to acceleration of new relationships, especially with soldiers: rapid progression to marriage, reflecting a desire to “live for today.” Thus, war-related uncertainties can lead young people to accelerate rather than delay key life course events. Finally, the interviews highlight how the war has both heightened and undermined traditional gender norms and power dynamics within relationships.
The format of the seminar is face-to-face only. Due to the venue’s capacity restriction, participants’ places will be reserved on a first-come-first-served basis.