This programme involves the stay of Lisa Eklund at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford, for 12 months. As a leading scholar who has contributed to the field of social politics of demography theoretically, conceptually and methodologically, she will transfer skills and expertise to OSGA students and staff, including staff at other UK institutions. The transfer of skills and expertise are crucial for the further development of future research agendas that take on the big questions and challenges that arise from demographic transformations, such as low fertility, aging populations and sex ratio imbalance.
Social politics of demography engages with critical questions around demographics as a social and political force. It interrogates the discursive and performative propensities of demographic categories, problems and goals, and how these are constructed, negotiated and translated into policy and practice under diverse structural and institutional conditions. The field generates new insights into the reconfiguration of inequalities and the redistribution of power along the lines of gender, sexuality, generation, and class.
Drawing on extensive research within the field of social politics of demography in the Chinese context, Eklund brings a distinctive perspective informed by comparative analysis, methodological pluralism, and efforts to strengthen synergies between sociology and Area Studies. During her stay, Eklund will transfer skills and expertise through a series of lectures, methodology seminars, symposia and network activities at OSGA and with other colleges at the University of Oxford and other UK universities.
