Professor Xiangqun Chang 常向群教授 FRSA, FGCA and President of the Global China Academy (GCA), a UK-based independent worldwide fellowship that promotes comprehensive studies on China in the social sciences and humanities. Over the years, she has held honorary, part-time, or visiting professorships, as well as senior research fellow positions, at various universities in both the UK and China. These include University College London, SOAS University of London, the University of Westminster, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and City, University of London, as well as Nankai University, Jilin University, Peking University, Renmin University of China, Fudan University, Sun Yat-sen University, and Northeastern University, among others. Her academic publications amount to over three million words in both English and Chinese, including Guanxi or Li Shang Wanglai?: Reciprocity, Social Support Networks and Social Creativity in a Chinese Village (Chinese, 2009; English, 2010). ​She has also served as the Editor-in-Chief of Global Century Press. She is the editor of the Journal of China in Global and Comparative Perspectives, Global China Dialogue Proceedings and several book series, including  ‘Concepts of China,’ ‘Globalization of Chinese Social Sciences,’ ‘China and Chinese Comparative Studies,’ ‘Transcultural Experiences with “Three Eyes”’ ‘Cutting Edge and Frontiers’. Additionally, she is responsible for the bilingual (Chinese-English) publication of four academic journals and eight book series.

She remains the only Chinese sociologist with formal sociological training in both China and the UK who has been continuously engaged in academic work in the UK since arriving as a visiting scholar in 1991. To this day, she remains the only Chinese sociologist working long-term in the UK who has received formal sociological training in both China and the UK. Drawing on her extensive ethnographic research in a Chinese village, conducted with longitudinal comparisons, she developed the analytical concept of ‘recipropriety’ (lishang-wanglai 互适)—an adaptation of the classical and popular Chinese concept of li shang wanglai (礼尚往来). This concept explains the mechanisms by which Chinese society and social relations operate, contributing to existing theories on reciprocity, relatedness, social exchange, social creativity, social interaction, social networks, social capital, and transculturality, incorporating the notion of ‘ritual capital’ (礼仪资本) for a deeper understanding of and governance in global society. In recognition of her contributions, she was selected by the Academic Presidents of the International Sociological Association (ISA) as one of 15 sociologists worldwide who were ‘called upon to adapt the discipline to the upheavals of the twenty-first century’ (Practicing Social Science: Sociologists and Their Craft, by Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, Routledge, 2017).

常向群教授，英国皇家艺术院院士、全球中国学术院院士及院长。全球中国学术院是一个总部设在英国的全球性院士制机构，致力于在人文和社会科学领域对中国进行独立、综合的研究。长期以来，她先后在英国和中国多所大学担任名誉教授、兼职教授、客座教授或高级研究员，包括伦敦大学学院、伦敦大学亚非学院、威斯敏斯特大学、伦敦政治经济学院、伦敦城市大学，以及南开大学、吉林大学、北京大学、中国人民大学、复旦大学、中山大学和东北大学等。她的中英文著述累计约300余万字，代表作包括：《马克思主义社会学论稿》（中文版共58万字，2018年；初版46万字，1992年）、《关系抑或礼尚往来：江村的互惠社会支持网和社会创造的研究》（中文简体字版54万字，2009年；英文版与繁体中文版，2010年）。她还主编了《社会建设：中国社会的一种发展模式》（英文版2014年；中英文增补版，2015–2018年），并与他人合作主编了三卷本《费孝通研究》（2015–2018年）。她还兼任环球世纪出版总编，主编《全球中国比较研究》期刊，《全球中国对话文集》辑刊，“中华概念”“中国社会科学全球化”“中国与中华比较视野”“‘三只眼’转文化”“新锐与前沿”等系列丛书，并负责四种学术期刊和八套系列丛书的中英双语出版事务。

她至今仍是唯一一位自1991年以访问学者身份来到英国以来，一直在英国持续从事学术工作，并接受过中国和英国社会学正规训练的华人社会学家。基于对中国某村庄长期深入的比较民族志研究，她提出了一个具有中国特色的互惠、互动、社会关系与社会网络模型。她借用并改造了中国古典与民间常用的“礼尚往来”概念，创造出一个基于“礼仪资本”、具有普适价值的分析概念——“互适”（recipropriety）。这一理论对社会学与人类学中的互惠、社会交换、社会互动、社会创造、社会网络与社会资本研究产生了重要影响，并被国际社会学协会（ISA）学术委员会评选为“应对动荡的21世纪社会学”的全球十五位有影响力的社会学家之一（见《实践社会科学：社会学家及其工匠研究》，德沃拉·卡莱金-费什曼著，劳特里奇出版社，2017年）。

Click here to return to the Trustees page