Huan Yang defends her PhD thesis
Huan Yang defends her PhD thesis 'Social Transformation and Gender Roles: A Study of Returned Migrant Workers in Xiangxi Rural Region of Chinese Hunan Province'
The defense is public, and everybody is welcome; the defense is scheduled for a maximum of three hours and will be held in English.
Follow the defense online via Zoom
The Doctoral School at Department of People and Technology will host a small reception afterwards.
Supervisors and assessment
Assessment committee:
- Professor Emerita Barbara Merrill, Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
- Xiaotian Hu, Associate Professor, Customs College, Shanghai, China
- Stephen Carney, Professor MSO, Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University, Denmark (Chair)
PhD Supervisor:
- Henning Salling Olesen, Professor emeritus, Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University, Danmark
Resumé
This study focuses on female return migrant workers in China within the context of broader social transformation, examining how traditional gender norms shape their action choices throughout the processes of migration and return, particularly in relation to participation in agriculture training. Existing literature has largely explained migrant mobility in terms of economic motivations or structural constraints, while gender analyzes tend to position women within a binary framework as either “structurally constrained subjects” or “agentic actors.” Such approaches are insufficient to
account for the complex logic of action observed in everyday life. Theoretically, this study is grounded in modernization theory, supplemented by individualization theory and a gender role analytical framework, conceptualizing subjectivity as a process continuously formed and negotiated under structural constraints.
Methodologically, the study adopts life-history interviews as its primary approach and incorporates digital ethnography by treating short-video platforms (such as Douyin) as key sites for observing subjective expression and cultural production. The research is based on life story interviews with nineteen return migrant workers in Xiangxi rural region of Chinese Hunan province, and integrates both their online and offline practices to establish analytical connections between individual narratives and macro-level structures.
The analysis centres on the life histories of two women, Wang Fang and Dong Ping. The findings show that migration is not merely a process of labor reallocation, but also a critical stage in the reconstruction of subjectivity. Across educational choices, career trajectories, and family decisionmaking, gender norms continuously intervene in shaping individual actions through multiple mechanisms. Wang Fang’s successive decisions—from vocational education in agriculture, to urban employment, and eventually to returning home to start a business—are deeply embedded within family structures and gendered expectations. As a daughter, wife, and mother, she repeatedly negotiates between economic aspirations and familial responsibilities. Through analyzing local discourses such as 懂事 dǒngshì (“being sensible”) and 女汉子 nǚhànzi (“manly woman”), this study demonstrates how individuals engage in ongoing negotiation between traditional moral expectations and modern individualized aspirations. While Dǒngshì operates as both a guiding principle of action and an adaptive form of traditional norms in a modern context, Wang Fang’s identification with figures such as the “nǚhànzi” or even “general”, and her emphasis on changing one’s destiny through individual effort, reveal a gendered paradox of subjectivity: her attempt to assert subjectivity by proving herself not inferior to men remains embedded within evaluative
frameworks defined by male standards. Within this logic, female strength is recognized primarily as the approximation or replication of existing masculine norms, rather than a challenge to their structural foundations. Furthermore, by interpreting the success of certain female online influencers as replicable pathways, she tends to attribute success to individual effort and capability, while underestimating the roles of resource distribution, platform support, and structural opportunity. This imagination of “limitless possibilities” obscures persistent structural constraints, placing disproportionate responsibility on individuals under asymmetrical conditions. As a result, the more she seeks to overcome limitations through intensified individual effort, the more she inadvertently reinforces her reliance on existing gender norms and evaluative standards, thereby reproducing the very structures she seeks to transcend.
In contrast, Dong Ping’s experience reflects more immediate and rigid structural constraints. Her return migration is primarily driven by caregiving responsibilities. After returning, she simultaneously maintains her identity as a “worker” through participation in training and continuous job seeking, while undertaking extensive domestic and care labor, which she herself describes as merely “staying at home doing nothing.” This characterization reflects the structural devaluation of domestic labor, as well as the deep internalization of gender norms at the level of self-perception. Her attitudes towards her niece further reveal tensions between traditional and modern values: she continues to accept the conventional belief that “girls will eventually marry out”, while also expressing faith in education as a means of changing one’s fate.
The juxtaposition of these two cases demonstrates that the formation of subjectivity is not a linear process, but unfolds through adaptation, compromise, and limited forms of resistance, with its specific configuration shaped by one’s structural position. Wang Fang, drawing on her educational background, family resources, and social networks, is able to negotiate a degree of space within gender norms; Dong Ping, by contrast, operates under conditions of resource scarcity and concentrated responsibility, where participation in training functions primarily as a pragmatic strategy to sustain livelihood and identity.
The study further identifies deeper structural dilemmas faced by returning women: the limited industrial structure in county-level economies creates a mismatch between skills acquired in urban settings and local employment opportunities; patrilocal residence, as a persistent institutional foundation of patriarchy, deprives women of land rights and results in a lack of social security; and digital divides, alongside algorithmically reinforced information bubbles, confine them within homogeneous social circles, restricting their ability to transcend rural–urban cultural boundaries. Upon returning to the countryside, they often find themselves unable to fully reintegrate into rural communities, while also lacking a clear sense of belonging.
Theoretically, this study reveals the non-linear and uneven nature of China’s modernization process, showing that rapid transformation in economic and institutional domains has not been accompanied by equivalent changes in family structures and gender relations, thereby placing women under dual pressures between individualization in the public sphere and traditional obligations in the private sphere. Methodologically, the study highlights the analytical value of lifehistory approaches in capturing the formation of subjectivity, while the incorporation of digital methods expands the capacity to analyze individual experience and cultural expression. At the policy level, the findings suggest that support for returning women should not be limited to skills training, but should instead involve institutional arrangements, such as land security, social networks, and public services that provide stable structural support.
This dissertation is structured into 8 chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the research context and questions. Chapter 2 provides the structural background for understanding the issue of returned migrant workers by reviewing changes in industrialization, agricultural transformation, and the labor market following China’s economic reforms. Chapter 3 uses modernization theory as its main thread, analyzing from economic, social, and subjective dimensions. It introduces the concept of subjectivity to show how family ethics and gender order serve as dual structural constraints shaping returning women’s subjectivity formation, and establishes gender roles as the core analytical dimension. Chapter 4 describes the research methodology, including the rationale for choosing life history interviews, the sampling strategy, and the use of digital methods. Chapter 5 presents the fieldwork process, detailing the selection of participants, the challenges encountered during entry into the field, researcher positionality, and ethical reflections. Chapters 6 and 7 focus on two case studies, Wang Fang and Dong Ping respectively, tracing their life experiences and gendered practices throughout migration and return. Finally, Chapter 8 synthesizes findings from the two cases, articulates the research contributions, addresses the research questions, and discusses the study’s theoretical contributions and policy implications.
The dissertation will be available for reading at the Roskilde University Library before the defence (on-site use). The dissertation will also be available at the defence.