Qian Zhang Researcher

CURRENT TEACHING (Autumn 2023)

Supervision of two bachelor theses.

Courses

• Responsible teacher of the master level course Migration and Social Change - A Life Course Perspective (KG 7245, 15 hp) 
• Lecturer in the master level course Globalization, Environment and Social Change (KG7242)

PREVIOUS TEACHING

Lectures, seminars, lab exercises and administration in courses

• at both undergraduate level and graduate level
• with themes on population geography, migration, natural resource management, political ecology, planning and methods
• with both qualititave and quantitative methods

Courses at the undergraduate level

• Geografiska strukturer och samhälle
• Globala processer
• Challenges of Planning in the Global South
• Swedish Geography
• Essay on Swedish Geography
• Befolkningsgeografi
• Kvantitativa metoder i Samhällsplanering II
• Ekonomiska geogafi
• Omvärldanalys
• Miljöutmaningar i ett samhällsperspektiv
• Vetenskapsfilosofi
• Befolkning, utveckling och globalisering

Courses at the graduate level

• Political Ecology – Land Use and Natural Resources in a Local to Global Perspective
• Planning Practices in Cities and Regions
• Urbanisation and the Environment
• Migration and Social Change
• History of Geographical Thoughts

Supervision

Theses in geography at the undergraduate level and in the master program of "Globalisation, Environment and Social Change".

New project

Digital Nature:Everyday social-technical relations and practices within Sweden’s rural agriculture and wild harvesting industries, led by Qian Zhang, participated by Natasha A. Webster, Linn Axelsson and Shengnan Han, financed by VR special programme Social Consequences of Digitalization for three year (2023-2025).

See news report

Närmare 27 miljoner i bidrag från Vetenskapsrådet - Stockholms universitet

Abstract. Digital platforms are fundamentally transforming the way we live, work and play, normalizing everyday digital-social-spatial relations. The dominant articulation of ‘platform urbanism’ makes one wonder what the social consequences of platformization are in rural areas and the ways digital life in the rural may be theoretically and empirically different. In Sweden, despite high hopes that digital technologies will make the rural competitive and attractive, we know little about social-technical practices and relations in the rural, and how the diverse rural spaces and places are connected to and from platformization. This project asks: 1) How is digital technology incorporated into everyday social and economic life in specific Swedish rural contexts? 2) How do everyday digitally mediated practices change rural social-technical relations and spatialities? 3) What are the consequences and implications of these relations for regional development? 4) What role does platformization play in normalizing, reproducing or reinforcing social inequalities/divides? Utilizing ethnographic, digital and computational methods, we will explore the questions in three nature-based industries situated in varied Swedish rural contexts – Beekeeping, Organic Farming and Wild Berry Refinement. This project has strong social relevance by addressing rural development, sustainability, and equality. We further advance this material to theoretically explore the role of rurality in shaping digital relations.

Other ongoing projects

Integration Delivered? Unveiling immigrant experiences in the growing Swedish gig economy (2020-2023)

This project is a collaboration with Dr. Natasha A. Webster and financed by the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas) for three years (2020–2023). 

The “gig” economy - one off (gigs) forms of employment via digital platforms - is growing in Sweden with immigrants making up much of its labor force. Gigs change working life and conditions through shifting employment forms while polarizing the labor force. This has potential impacts on the long-term integration of immigrants into Sweden's labor market. Swedish cities are relative newcomers to the gig economy, yet gig work is increasingly part of immigrant working lives. Gigs may bypass barriers, i.e. language or education mismatches, that migrants face in conventional work tenures. The rise of the Swedish gig economy has resulted in both research and policy gaps. This study addresses these gaps by asking: How is the gig economy organized and operationalized by worker-company relations in the Swedish context? How do immigrant gig workers in Sweden experience daily working life? How do we empirically understand current gaps in Swedish regulatory frameworks and the implications of those for enabling sustainable labor force participation of immigrant gig workers? Utilizing innovative qualitative methods, we study the gig economy at three scales - worker, company and structural frameworks - emphasizing gender and diversity. We unpack how the gig economy is utilized by immigrant groups, shaping working life and conditions while exposing inequalities. This research project has strong social relevance by addressing contemporary working life and integration in Sweden.

Recent publications:

Webster, N. A., Zhang, Q., Butler, O., Dissing Christensen, M., Duss, K., Floros, K., ... & Roelofsen, M. (2023). Thinking through digital mediations and spatialities of platform based work: A roundtable reflection. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1813354/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Zhang, Q., Webster, N. A., Han, S., & Ayele, W. Y. (2023). Contextualizing the rural in digital studies: A computational literature review of rural-digital relations. Technology in Society, 102373. Doi: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102373

Webster, N.A., & Zhang, Q. (2022). Intersectional understandings of the role and meaning of platform-mediated work in the pandemic Swedish welfare state. Digital Geography and Society, 3, 100025, 1-13. doi: 10.1016/j.diggeo.2021.100025.

Webster, N.A., & Zhang, Q. (2021). Centering social-technical relations in studying platform urbanism: Intersectionality for just futures in European cities. Urban Transformations, 3(10), 1-7. doi: 10.1186/s42854-021-00027-z.

Previous projects

Platforming the rural? A cross-context exploration of digital rural spaces and practices (2021-2022)

This project is led by Qian Zhang, collaborated with Natasha A. Webster and Shengnan Han, and financed by the Fund for Strategic Investments at Stockholm University.

In this pilot study, we challenge the normative perspective of the urban in understanding the platform economy and advance conceptual discussions of rurality to ask: What is distinct about platform ruralism and how do (Swedish) rural digital practices and spaces illustrate this? We aim to map and understand the relationship between digital platforms, rural digital practices and changing rural social and economic life based on reviewing existing literature across relevant themes. The Swedish rural context is uniquely positioned to provide insights into understanding the implications of the platform economy because of 1) the exceptionally robust rural internet coverage, 2) a rich and diverse range of rural economic sectors from large industries to support for small businesses, and 3) strong rural governance and a welfare state system.

The study will contribute new interdisciplinary knowledge and methodologies for understanding how rural digital practices occur in specific social-spatial relations. This study will also contribute to new understandings of the meaning of rural spaces and places, and their positionings in the globalised digital age.

This study has been presented at the Nordic Geographers Meeting 2022 in Joensuu, Finland.

Unpacking spatial tensions: An interdisciplinary analysis of large-scale solar farm effects in drylands (2020-2022) 

This is a pilot exploration of large-scale solar farm effects in drylands from an interdisciplinary approach. It is collaborated with Ellen Bertell, Zhengyao Lu and Qiong Zhang in the project Simulating green Sahara with an earth system model, Swedish Research Council (VR, 2018-2021)

The study has been presented at the EGU General Assembly 2022.

New publication:

Zhang, Q., Berntell, E., Lu, Z., and Zhang, Q. (2022). Unpacking spatial tensions: An interdisciplinary analysis of large-scale solar farm effects in drylands, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11740. doi: 10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11740.

Abstract: The last decades have seen rapid growth of renewable energy globally for accommodating the urgent need of mitigating climate change. Large-scale projects like solar farms are actively financed by transnational investors to get established in drylands like Sahara. The Earth-system model simulations on large-scale solar-farm scenarios show an increased regional rainfall and vegetation cover, analogue to a “green Sahara” that happened in the past. It will not only induce local climate and ecosystem changes but also prompt remote impacts globally through atmospheric teleconnections and ocean dynamics. This suggests that spatial tensions are inherent to climate change mitigation measures, where action in one place at a particular time impacts not only this place and the short time but place at distance and time in the future. Meanwhile, case studies in social sciences seem to suggest common unintended social consequences of the ongoing projects but no systematic assessment across these projects has been done. This study thus aims to pilot an interdisciplinary investigation of the multi-dimensional effects of large-scale renewable energy projects, mainly solar farms in drylands.

Unlocking the zero-lease puzzle in Swedish agricultural transformation

This is an ongoing study with Anders Wästfelt of the zero-lease phenomenon in Sweden. Our aim is to take this as an example to explore the role of globalisation, policy and farmer's decision-makings in shaping the change of agricultural land use nowadays. Thanks to the availability of Swedish lease statistics, we are able to combine quantitative and qualitative methods in the exploration. The following paper has been published and presented at the conference Re-scaling the Rural in Thy/Århus Denmark in May 2022. 

New publication:

Wästfelt, A., & Zhang, Q. (2022). Land without value? Unlocking the zero-lease puzzle in Swedish agricultural transformation. Geography Research Forum, 41: 108-136. https://grf.bgu.ac.il/index.php/GRF/article/view/612/529

Abstract: Contradictory and polarised processes dominate the shifting picture of agricultural landscape in Europe, where farmland abandonment, upscaling of farming, and scarcity of farmland, have been going on simultaneously in increasingly compressed spaces and at an intensified speed. These reflect the general puzzle in the globalised agriculture nowadays, questioning the availability and value of farmland. This paper focuses on unpacking one illustration of this farmland puzzle – the so called zero-lease phenomenon in Sweden, which is characterised by no transfer of money between landowners and users and has been captured in Swedish agricultural statistics since 1999. We examine this phenomenon through a theoretical lens which combines the views from rent theory, intensification and extensification in agricultural transformation, and historical institutional theory of land tenure. Through an empirical analysis focusing on mapping the geographical dimensions of the zero-lease, which include the scale of zero-lease fields, the geographical location of these fields at the farm and regional level, and the spatial variation of lease price, we argue zero lease has a strong geographical variation in Sweden and its spatial-temporal patterns closely follow the changing rhythm of agricultural restructuring processes over time. This Swedish example illustrates a methodological approach to locally identify how globally integrated markets force farmers to change – restructure, intensify or extensify. Ultimately, zero-lease can be seen as a farm-level adaptation in which farmers rely on farm geographies to cope – finding ways to adjust through spatial and temporal means – when old farming models no longer fit in the global agri-food systems.

Agents of Migration -A case study of the restaurant sector 

As part of the VR financed research project "Agents of Migration" (2018-2021) led by Dr. Linn Axelsson, this case study focuses on unpacking the role of intermediaries in the migration of Chinese workers in the Swedish restaurant sector. Our previous study (Axelsson et al 2013, 2017) and pilot study suggest that Chinese restaurant workers migrated to Sweden with varied assistance from two major types of intermediaries - recruitment agencies and social networks. Research in the growing new research field of migration intermediaries show that intermediaries organise, promote, facilitate and channel as well as filter and control labour mobilities. In this case study, we are interested in finding out how intermediaries have (re)shaped migration flows and trajectories of Chinese restaurant workers as well as how those intermediaries interact with the Swedish state with implications for (re)shaping the policy space. Results from this case study will also be used for comparative analysis with two other studies under the general project which focus on intermediaries in the IT and berrypicking sectors.

Immigrants, working life and the growing Swedish gig economy

This pilot study is in collaboration with Dr. Natasha A. Webster and has received a research grant from the research area Digital Humanities (DHV, Digital humanvetenskap) at Stockholm University (2019-2020).

Against the background of increasing debate over the gig economy, this research aims to explore the intersection of food mediated through digital platforms with integration, migrant precarity and public and private spaces. A pilot case study has focused on exploring immigrant women's daily working experiences within a food app platform.

Land tenure, peri-urban agriculture and agricultural geography

This project is collaborated with Prof. Anders Wästfelt.

A lot of research has been done on land tenure and an institutional approach is very strong among policy-makers. While international organisations and economists believe that clear land tenure is fundamental for promoting agricultural development, social scientists have shown that reforms for clarifying land ownership have raised unexpected conflicts in local communities. On the other hand, research suggests that land lease markets have become very common, which unfortunately are made use of by land grabbing activities and marginalise indigenous agricultural production.

So what is the role of land tenure in agricultural development? How can geography help to interpret its role? This research takes these questions to explore an empirical case from Sweden where the historical evolution of land tenure has established two types of leasehold arrangements with high protection of farmers' rights. The aim of the study is to explore the geographical perspective of land tenure in agricultural development. The Swedish practices may shed new lights on land reform policy-making. 

The work behind this article has partly been funded by the RETHINK project (Rethinking the links between farm modernisation, rural development and resilience in a world of increasing demands and finite resources).

Peri-urban agricultural transformations in Gothenburg, Sweden

The work behind this article has been funded by the RETHINK project (Rethinking the links between farm modernisation, rural development and resilience in a world of increasing demands and finite resources).

Pastoralists and the environmental state: A study of ecological resettlement in Inner Mongolia, China

This is my doctoral dissertation which received one of four awards for "distinguished scientific works 2014–2015" from the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.

The dissertation can be downloaded here.

Abstract: China's quest for sustainable development has given birth to a set of contested ‘ecological construction’ programmes. Focusing on ‘ecological resettlement’, a type of policy measure in a programme for restoring degraded grasslands, this thesis sets out a critical analysis in opposition to the dominant technical and managerial approaches to understanding environmentalisation. The aim is to draw out the politics of the formulation, implementation and effects of ecological resettlement at and across different scales. The study combines fieldwork, interviews, analysis of policy documents, and statistical analysis while theoretically, in addition to political ecology, it incorporates concepts and models from environmental governance, migration, and pastoralism studies. Environmentalisation is examined through three types of analysis: environmentalisation of the state, reshaping of state-society relations, and (re)territorialisation. A central theme is how local processes are linked to national considerations and how the local state acts as an intermediary between the central state and the pastoralists. The analysis exposes the practices that enabled the central state to define the problem of grasslands and devise interventions, illustrating the environmentalisation of the state. However, at the local level, incentives and interests defined by the political structure drove the developmental local state to pursue short-term-effective rather than sustainable practices. On the other hand, while the pastoral households responded to the projects with different strategies, their migration decisions suggested that social, economic and cultural considerations played a more important role than environmental concerns. Moreover, ecological resettlement has led to a significant change of Mongolian pastoralism. Land-tenure-based management further fragmented rangelands while the emergence of new social arrangements enabled migrant households to remain involved with pastoralism.

Chinese migrant workers in Sweden

Funded by the International Organization for Migration and led by Prof. Bo Malmberg, this project explored recent trends in Chinese labour migration to Sweden. In particular it examined the working conditions of Chinese chefs in Chinese-owned restaurants against the backdrop of Sweden’s new labour immigration policy and labour and employment law.

The project report can be downloaded here.

Agriculture and Human Values

Current Anthropology

Environment, Development and Sustainability

Emotion, Space and Society

Forum for Development Studies

Geografiska Annaler. Series B. Human Geography

Globalizations

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Nordic Journal of Migration Research

Political Geography

Rural Sociology

Sustainability

World Development

China-Europe Research Platform on Chinese Migration to and beyond Europe (CERPE)

European Geosciences Union (EGU)

ICARDC Network on Agriculture and Rural Development in China (ICARDC)

Swedish Development Research Network (SweDev)

The International Network on Displacement and Resettlement (INDR)

The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (SSAG)

Appointments

2021 –     Co-convenor of the Post-COST Drylands Action Forum

2018 – 2021  Sweden-representative of the EU COST Action (CA16233) “Drylands Facing Change: Interdisciplinary Research on Climate Change, Food Insecurity, Political Instability”.