Professor Yao Lu Wins Two Prestigious Awards for Her Article on Migration and Collective Action in Rural China

June 28, 2020

Dr. Yao Lu, Associate Professor of Sociology and faculty member of the Columbia China Center for Social Policy, won two prestigious awards from the American Sociological Association (ASA) for her recent publication on migration and collective action in rural China. 

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Professor Lu’s article, titled “Empowerment or Disintegration? Migration, Social Institutions, and Collective Action in Rural China,” won the Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Article Award from both the Political Sociology Section and the Collective Behavior and Social Movement Section of ASA. The paper also received the Louis Wirth Best Article Award Honorable Mention at the International Migration Section of ASA. 

The article was published in the November 2019 issue of the American Journal of Sociology, a top sociology journal that was established in 1895 as the first U.S. scholarly journal in its field and “presents pathbreaking work from all areas of sociology, with an emphasis on theory building and innovative methods.”

In the article abstract, Professor Lu writes that “this article integrates literature on social movements and migration to examine how migration shapes both the cognitive and social foundations of collective action in origin communities. Using longitudinal data and in-depth interviews from rural China, the author finds that outward migration spurs collective resistance in origin communities and shapes the form and scale of collective action.”

“It's a really awesome paper on migration, collective action, and China. Definitely worth a read.” Tweeted Shamus Khan, Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Sociology Department at Columbia University.

Read the abstract and full article here.

Congratulations to Professor Yao Lu!

Columbia Affiliations
China Center for Social Policy