Title:
Associate Head

Qualifications:
PhD (Oxford)
MPhil (HKU)
BSocSc (HKU)

Email:
ssakoo@polyu.edu.hk

Phone:
2766 4945

Office:
GH302

Specialism:
Education inequality;
Class and stratification;
Migrant population in China

My URLs:  
ORCID

Teaching:

Social and Cultural Dimensions of Health
Sociology of Health
Gender and Social Changes in Chinese Societies

Selected Research Projects:

2018-2020 ‘Gendering the New Generation of Chinese Workers in Vocational Schools’, General Research Fund, RGC, Hong Kong Government. (PI)

2016-2019 ‘Learning to Labor: Social Media and Migrant Labor Protection in Mainland China’. Collaborative Research Fund Scheme, RGC, Hong Kong Government. (Co-PI)

2013-2016 ‘Vocational Education and Social Mobility of Migrant Youth in China’, General Research Fund, RGC, Hong Kong Government. (PI)

2012-2015 ‘A New Age of World Factory: Capital Expansion, the Role of State and Foxconn Production in China’. General Research Fund, RGC, Hong Kong Government. (Co-I)

Selected Publications:

Refereed Journal papers:

• Lu, Benny, Anita Koo and Ngai Pun. 2019. ‘Attempting to Transgress Neoliberal Value: Constructing a Micro-Foundation of Social Values of Working-Class Youth in Vocational Schools in China,’ The Sociological Review.
• Hui, Bryant, Ngai Pun, Jack Qiu and Anita Koo. ‘Having Less but Giving More: Work experience and prosocial behavior of Chinese working-class youth,’ Youth & Society.
• Pun, Ngai and Anita Koo. 2019. ‘Double Contradiction of Schooling: Class reproduction and working-class agency at vocational schools in China,’ British Journal of Sociology of Education 40(1): 50-64.
• Koo, Anita. 2016. ‘Expansion of Vocational Education in Neoliberal China: Hope and despair among rural youth,’ Journal of Education Policy 31(1): 46-59.
• Wong, Yi-Lee and Anita Koo. 2016. ‘Is Hong Kong no longer a land of opportunities after the 1997 handover?: A comparison of patterns of social mobility between 1989 and 2007,’ Asian Journal of Social Science 44(4/5): 516-545.
• Pun, Ngai and Anita Koo. 2015. ‘A “World-Class” (Labor) Camp/us: Foxconn and China’s new generation of labor migrants,’ positions 23(3): 411-435.
• Koo, Anita, Holly Ming and Bill Tsang. 2014. ‘The Doubly Disadvantaged: How return migrant children fail to access and deploy capitals for academic success in rural schools,’ Sociology, 48(4): 795-811.
• Koo, Anita. 2012. ‘Is there any chance to get ahead? Education aspiration and expectations of migrant families in China,’ British Journal of Sociology of Education, 33(4): 547-564.  
• Chan, Tak-Wing and Anita Koo. 2011. ‘Parenting Style and Youth Outcome in the UK,’ European Sociological Review, 27(3): 364-384.
• Ng, Adolf, Anita Koo and Athanasios Pallis. 2011. ‘Professionalization of the Shipping Industry via Postgraduate Education,’ Ocean and Coastal Management, 54(5): 364-373.
• Koo, Anita and Thomas Wong. 2009. ‘Family in Flux: Benchmarking Family Changes in Hong Kong Society,’ Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, 4: 47-56.
• Ng, Adolf, Anita Koo and Jarrod Ho. 2009. ‘The Motivations and Added-Values of Embarking on Postgraduate Professional Education: Evidences from the maritime industry,’ Transport Policy, 16(5): 251-258. 

Edited books:

• 2015. Social Economy in China and the World, edited by Pun, Ngai, Ben Ku, Hairong Yan and Anita Koo, London: Routledge.
• 2014.《社會經濟在中國：超越資本主義的理論與實踐》，潘毅、嚴海蓉、古學斌、顧靜華 編（北京：社會科學文獻） (Social Economy in China: Beyond the Imagination of Capitalism, edited by Pun, Ngai, Hairong Yan, Ben Ku and Anita Koo, Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Academic Literature Press)
• 2013.《不一樣的香港社會經濟》，潘毅、陳鳳儀、顧靜華、盧燕儀編（香港：香港商務印書館）(Alternative and Social Economy in Hong Kong, edited by Pun, Ngai, Pauline Chan, Anita Koo and Y.Y. Lo, Hong Kong: Commercial Press) 

Conference Papers:

• Mar 2018. ‘Rural Students in Urban Vocational Schools: Aspiration, Identity and Employment,’ Paper presented in the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2018 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., USA.
• Aug 2017. ‘Learning to be Girls: Contested Gender Discourses and Identities in the Vocational Schooling,’ Paper presented in Age Agency Ambiguity – gender and generation in times of change in the University of Oslo, Norway.
• Sept 2016. ‘“Student-laborers” – the Formation of the New Working Class in China,’ Paper presented in BSA Work, Employment and Society Conference 2016 in University of Leeds, England.
• July 2016. ‘Having Vocational Education and Underpaid Internship: Project of Human Capital Formation among Disadvantaged Youths in China,’ Paper presented in the 3^rd ISA Forum of Sociology in University of Vienna, Austria.
• July 2015. ‘Education and Social Mobility of Migrant Youth in Chinese Cities,’ Paper presented in the 19^th International Symposium of the ICSD in SIM University, Singapore.
• July 2014. ‘Expansion of Vocational Education and the Social Reproduction of Working Class in China,’ Paper presented in the ISA 18^th World Congress of Sociology in Yokohama, Japan.
• April 2014. ‘Human Capital Regime in Neoliberal Economies: Having Vocational Education as a Self-Investment Project among Youths in China,’ Paper presented in the British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2014 in University of Leeds, England.
• Nov 2012. ‘The Doubly Disadvantaged: How returnee migrant students fail to access and deploy capitals for academic success in rural schools,’ Paper presented in the Social Integration of New Generation Migrant Family Conference in China Youth University for Political Sciences, Beijing, China.
• Aug 2012. ‘Vocational education and the new generation of working class in China,’ Paper presented in the 2^nd ISA Forum of Sociology in the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. 
• Lu, Benny, Anita Koo and Ngai Pun. 2019. ‘Attempting to Transgress Neoliberal Value: Constructing a Micro-Foundation of Social Values of Working-Class Youth in Vocational Schools in China,’ The Sociological Review.
• Hui, Bryant, Ngai Pun, Jack Qiu and Anita Koo. 2019. ‘Having Less but Giving More: Work experience and prosocial behavior of Chinese working-class youth,’ Youth & Society.
• Pun, Ngai and Anita Koo. 2019. ‘Double Contradiction of Schooling: Class reproduction and working-class agency at vocational schools in China,’ British Journal of Sociology of Education 40(1): 50-64.
• Koo, Anita. 2016. ‘Expansion of Vocational Education in Neoliberal China: Hope and despair among rural youth,’ Journal of Education Policy 31(1): 46-59.
• Wong, Yi-Lee and Anita Koo. 2016. ‘Is Hong Kong no longer a land of opportunities after the 1997 handover?: A comparison of patterns of social mobility between 1989 and 2007,’ Asian Journal of Social Science 44(4/5): 516-545.
• Pun, Ngai and Anita Koo. 2015. ‘A “World-Class” (Labor) Camp/us: Foxconn and China’s new generation of labor migrants,’ positions 23(3): 411-435.
• Koo, Anita, Holly Ming and Bill Tsang. 2014. ‘The Doubly Disadvantaged: How return migrant children fail to access and deploy capitals for academic success in rural schools,’ Sociology, 48(4): 795-811.
• Koo, Anita. 2012. ‘Is there any chance to get ahead? Education aspiration and expectations of migrant families in China,’ British Journal of Sociology of Education, 33(4): 547-564.  
• Chan, Tak-Wing and Anita Koo. 2011. ‘Parenting Style and Youth Outcome in the UK,’ European Sociological Review, 27(3): 364-384.
• Ng, Adolf, Anita Koo and Athanasios Pallis. 2011. ‘Professionalization of the Shipping Industry via Postgraduate Education,’ Ocean and Coastal Management, 54(5): 364-373.
• Koo, Anita and Thomas Wong. 2009. ‘Family in Flux: Benchmarking Family Changes in Hong Kong Society,’ Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, 4: 47-56.
• Ng, Adolf, Anita Koo and Jarrod Ho. 2009. ‘The Motivations and Added-Values of Embarking on Postgraduate Professional Education: Evidences from the maritime industry,’ Transport Policy, 16(5): 251-258.