Zepeng ZhouGraduate Student
Degrees
- MA, Sociology, Beijing Normal University, 2023
- BA, Sociology, Beijing Normal University, 2020
General Research Areas
- Digital and Media Sociology;
- Economic Sociology;
- Cultural Sociology;
- Organizations, Occupations, and Work
Current Research
I research the platform economy and digital creative industries in the global context. My studies use a cultural approach to examine how digital technologies and transnationalism interact and reconfigure work, organizations, culture, and valuation. Challenging technocentrism, I particularly focus on where technology falls short and human interaction comes to the fore, and how humanness is entangled in the (re) production of inequalities and injustices.
Beyond digital transformations, I am also interested in culture and subjectivity in broader processes of social change. My earlier work on the public life and identity dynamics of migrant youth in Beijing under individualization was published in the Chinese Journal of Sociology and received the Fei Xiaotong Outstanding Paper Award.
Recent Publications
Zhou, Zepeng. Forthcoming. “Shoppable Self as Spectacle: Precarious Identity Making of Beauty Influencers in China.” In The Spectacle of Online Life. Eds. Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo, Christopher T. Conner, and Mathew N. Hannah. New York: Bloomsbury.
Zhou, Zepeng and Suowei Xiao. 2023. “Experiencing authenticity: Sociability and the double lives of middle-class migrant youth in Beijing.” Chinese Journal of Sociology, 9(3), 429-452.
