BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:270@harvard-yenching.org DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211130T073000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211130T090000 DTSTAMP:20211122T150146Z URL:https://www.harvard-yenching.org/events/modernization-as-maximization- three-generations-of-young-men-and-women/ SUMMARY:Modernization as Maximization: Three Generations of Young Men and W omen DESCRIPTION:Beijing Normal University &\; HYI international webinar seri es on Sociology and Education\n\nThe event will be held virtually over Zoo m. To join the meeting\, enter the following information:\n\nMeeting ID: 8 54 8710 3549\nPasscode: 864694\n\nThe talk will be held from 7:30 AM – 9 :00 AM US East Coast time.\n\nLanguage: The speaker will present in Englis h. The Q&\;A/discussion will be held in both Chinese and English.\n\nTa lk synopsis: Drawing on life-history interviews (N=98) with Beijing young men and women in their last upper secondary school year\, their parents an d their grandparents\, this study examines what it means to be young in po st-Mao China undergoing rapid and dramatic transformation by comparing chi ldhood and youth experiences over three generations. It looks at the vario us aspects of life pertinent to youth experiences\, treating them as inter related and mutually affecting processes—childhood\, intergenerational r elationships\, education and future plans\, gender and sexuality. I argue that much of what has happened over the generations is in keeping with the global modernization trends. However\, the Chinese youth’s experiences of modernization also bears uniquely Chinese features\, which can be chara cterized as a ‘maximization desire’. Such a desire denotes a strong wi sh and serious efforts to maximize life and the self\, marking the young p eople as generational\, classed and gendered beings in a specific historic al\, cultural and socio-geographical context. A defining feature of ‘the aspiring individual’ of the young generation\, the maximization desire is co-constructed by the parents (sometimes also grandparents) and the you ng people themselves. The older generations lacked the cognitive resources or the environmental affordances to maximize. The maximization desire add resses the present\, as well as the past and the future of the only-child family. It entails personal and familial costs. It invokes century-old cul tural ideals and tendencies—exemplary norms\, traditional dialectics\, a nd future orientation\, as much as it is shaped by the specific post-Mao c ircumstances. In this presentation\, the speaker will illustrate this gene rational trend by presenting the findings on youth’s gender construction in the three generations.\n\nAbout the speaker: Fengshu Liu is a professo r at the Department of Education\, University of Oslo\, Norway. Her resear ch cuts across childhood and youth studies\, comparative and international education\, sociology of education\, and China studies. Much of her work examines the interplay between socio-cultural and institutional processes and the lives of children and young people in contemporary societies\, wit h special\, but not exclusive\, regard to China. More specifically\, it st udies children’s and young people’s experiences of ‘global moderniza tion’ and how current political\, economic\, cultural\, technological\, educational\, socio-spatial and demographic processes create and shape soc ial inequalities and other forms of challenges as well as opportunities\, calling forth ‘bounded agency’ among individuals and collectivities in various contexts. Besides\, her work also deals with such kindred themes as culture and education\, Confucian self-cultivation\, school culture and gender\, teaching and learning in higher education\, and rural education in China. Her earlier academic work was mainly related to the English lang uage and literature. Her recent books include Urban youth in China: Modern ity\, the internet and the self (Routledge\, 2011) and Modernization as li ved experiences: Three generations of young men and women in China (Routle dge\, 2020). END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20211107T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR