Murphy Rachel

Dr Rachel Murphy

Email:: rachel.murphy@sant.ox.ac.uk

Position:

University Lecturer in the Sociology of China

Title:

Degrees:

BA Hons (Murdoch University, Western Australia), 1994; PhD (Cantab), 1999

College:

St Antony's College

Introduction:

Rachel Murphy’s research has examined transformations in China’s rural hinterlands occurring as a result of the rapid incorporation of rural people into the inter-related processes of industrialization, urbanization, modernization (especially through the state projects of education and population regulation), marketisation and the expansion of communications technologies. Over the past fourteen years to understand these transformations she has conducted in-depth longitudinal ethnographic observation, extensive interviews and small-scale localized surveys in China’s interior rice belt. Across all topics - including migration, distortions in sex ratios at birth and the role of primary schools in the nation’s ‘population quality’ (suzhi) project – her analysis has paid particular attention to the sources and consequences of change in the cultural models that underpin rural social life and implications for the exercise of agency. Rachel is currently engaged in two research projects. One draws on insights from institutional sociology to explore the impact of local social and cultural arrangements on son preference in rural areas. Another, supported by a British Academy Career Development Award, looks at the children of labour migrants in China. Rachel serves on the British Academy China Selection Panel, and on the executive committee of the China Quarterly editorial board. She is also co-editor of the Routledge book series Comparative Development and Policy in Asia.

Research Activities and Interests:

(1) Sociology of development, esp. migration, population, gender and family. (2) Sociology of culture, media and information communication technologies. (3) Qualitative research methods.

Research Awards:

British Academy International Networks Grant, 2002;Gordon White Prize, China Quarterly, 2004; Nuffield Foundation Small Grant, 2006; British Academy Career Development Grant, current.

Teaching Responsibilities:

'Research Methods', 'the Study of Modern China' and ‘Sociology of China’; Contribution to Development Studies; MPhil dissertation supervision; DPhil supervision – advisees include Aga Zuoshi, Anna Kloeden, Dan Mai, Diana Fu, Feng-Yi Chu, Hamsa Rajan, Suyu Liu: topics including gender and Nuosu identity, civil society and the regulation of orphanages, migration and rural families, migrant worker NGOs, generations and political identity in Taiwan, family mediation among Tibetan communities in Qinghai, and university to work transition in China.

Previous posts held:

2000-2003: British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow in Development Studies, Jesus College, Cambridge. 2003-2005: Research Fellow in Contemporary China Studies Program, Pembroke College, Oxford. 2005-2007: Senior Lecturer in East Asian Studies and Affiliated Lecturer in Social Policy, Bristol.

Publications:

Monograph:
*(2002) How Migrant Labor is Changing Rural China, Cambridge University Press (published in Chinese translation in 2008 by Zhejiang People’s Publishing House)

Edited Books:
*(2009) with D. Johnson Education (eds.) Education and Development in China, special issue of International Journal of Educational Development, 29 (5), Elsevier.
*(ed.) (2008) Labour Migration and Social Development in Contemporary China, Routledge.
*With V. L. Fong (eds.) (2008) Media, Identity and Struggle in 21st Century China, Routledge.
*With V. L. Fong (eds.) (2006) Chinese Citizenship: Views from the Margins, Routledge.

Papers:
*Rachel Murphy, Ran Tao and Xi Lu (2011) ‘Son Preference in Rural China: Patrilineal Families and Socio-Economic Change’, Population and Development Review, 37 (4) (December): 665-690.
*Rachel Murphy (2011) ‘Civil Society and Media in China’ in Charting China’s Future: Domestic and International Challenges, ed. by David Shambaugh, Routledge, pp. 57-66.
*Rachel Murphy (2010) 'The Narrowing Digital Divide: A View from Rural China', in One Country, Two Societies: Rural-Urban Inequality in Contemporary China, ed. by M,K. Whyte, Harvard University Press, pp. 168-187.
*Mingxing Liu, Wang Juan, Ran Tao and Rachel Murphy (2009) 'The Political Economy of Earmarked Transfers in a State-Designated Poor County in Western China', China Quarterly, (December): 973-994.
*with David Johnson (2009) 'Education and Development in China', International Journal of Educational Development, 29 (5), Elsevier.
*Rachel Murphy (2008) 'Migrant Remittances in China: The Distribution of Economic Benefits and Social Costs', in Labour Migration and Social Development in Contemporary China, ed. by R. Murphy, Routledge, pp.47-72.
*Rachel Murphy, (2008) 'The Impact of Socio-Cultural Norms on Women's Experiences of Migration', Migration Studies Research Paper, New York: Social Science Research Council.
*(2007) ‘The Paradox of China’s Official State Media Reinforcing Poor Governance: Case Studies of a Party Newspaper and an Anti-Corruption Film,’ Critical Asian Studies, (Mar) 39 (1): 63-88.
*With L. Liu (2006) ‘Lineage Identities, Land Conflicts and Rural Migration in Late Socialist China’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 33 (4) (October): 612-645.
*(2007) ‘Paying for Education in Rural China’ in Paying For Progress in China: Public Finance, Human Welfare and Changing Patterns of Inequality, ed. by V. Shue and C. Wong, Routledge, 69-95.
*(2006) ‘Media Communications’ and ‘Internal Migration and Rural Livelihood Diversification’ in Companion to Development Studies, ed. by D. Clark, Edward Elgar, 238-245 and 289-295.
*With R. Tao (2006) ‘No Wage and No Land: New Forms of Unemployment in Rural China’, in Unemployment in China, ed. by G. Lee and M. Warner, Routledge, 128-149.
*(2005) ‘Helping Migration to Improve Livelihoods in China’, in Migration, Development and Poverty Reduction in Asia, ed. by F. Laczko (Geneva: International Organization for Migration), 223-242.
*(2004) ‘Turning Chinese Peasants into Modern Citizens: ‘Population Quality’, Demographic Transition, and Primary Schools’, China Quarterly, 177, (March):1-20.
*(2004) ‘Chinese Ethnography of State and Society’ in China Along the Yellow River, by J. Cao, Routledge, 1-15.
*(2004) ‘The Impact of Labour Migration on the Well-Being and Agency of Rural Chinese Women’, in On the Move: Women and Rural-Urban Migration in Contemporary China, ed. by A. Gaetano and T. Jacka, Columbia University Press, 227-262.
*(2003) ‘Fertility and Distorted Sex Ratios in Rural China: Culture, State and Policy,’ Population and Development Review, 29 (4) (December): 595-626.

Recent Seminar/Conference Participation:
* ‘What Does ‘Left Behind’ Mean in Rural China? Children’s Perspectives’, Conference on Migration, Social Reproduction and Social Protection, University of East Anglia at London, 2nd -3rd April 2012.
* ‘School in the Lives of Children in Migrant Families: A View from Rural China’, Population Dynamics in South and East Asia, British Academy and Royal Society, 29th-30th March 2012.
* ‘Sex Ratio Imbalances and China’s Care for Girls Programme’, Sociology Departmental Seminar Series, University of Cambridge, 1st March 2012.
*'Connected in Rural China: Households, Governments and Schools', University of Iceland, Keynote Speaker at the Nordic Association for Chinese Studies, annual meeting, 2-5th June 2009.