People

Dr Huiyan Fu

Senior Lecturer
EBS - Organisation Studies and Human Resource Management
Dr Huiyan Fu

Profile

Biography

Trained as an anthropologist at the University of Oxford, I conduct interdisciplinary, empirically grounded research on gender, social stratification, precarious work, and mental health. My work develops cross-national comparative frameworks that explain how cultural discourses and institutional structures interact to shape labour markets, inequality, and public health in Japan, China, and beyond. My research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals and by major academic presses. Recent work includes the edited volume Temporary and Gig Economy Workers in China and Japan (Oxford University Press, 2023), which offers a comparative account of how precarious work and cultural discourses are transformed and experienced at both macro and micro levels across East Asian contexts. I have secured competitive funding from the British Academy/Leverhulme and the Japan Foundation, and currently lead a funded project examining the intersections of gender, mental health, and social stratification in the context of neoliberal political economy and digital transformation. I have extensive experience in research leadership and supervision, and I welcome applications from prospective PhD students in the following areas: - Anthropology/Sociology of Japan and China, - Culture, Language, and Power - Mental Health, Public Health Policies, Health Economics - Gender, Intersectionality, Social-Health Inequalities - Digital Transformation

Qualifications

  • PhD (DPhil), MPhil, Social Anthropology, University of Oxford,

Teaching and supervision

Current teaching responsibilities

  • Managing Across Cultures (BE469)

  • Strategic Human Resource Management (BE733)

Publications

Journal articles (7)

Fu, H., (2021). Social action as ‘a total social phenomenon’: Comparing leadership challenges facing community-based labour organisations in China and Japan. Human Relations. Online (9), 1396-1420

Fu, H., Su, Y. and Ni, A., (2018). Selling motherhood: Gendered emotional labour, citizenly discounting, and alienation among China’s migrant domestic workers. Gender and Society. 32 (6), 814-836

Fu, H., (2016). From ‘Entering into a Firm’ to ‘Entering into a Profession’: An Anthropological Approach to Changing Personhood in Japan. British Journal of Industrial Relations. 54 (3), 552-573

Fu, H., (2013). Flexibility or inequality: The political debate on dispatched workers in Japan. Critical Discourse Studies. 10 (3), 312-326

Fu, H., (2013). Fragmented Work in Post‐Bubble Japan: Negotiating Identity, Gender, Age, and Class in Triangular Employment Relationships. Anthropology of Work Review. 34 (1), 27-38

Fu, H., (2011). Anthropologising the complexity of leadership: a holistic understanding of cross-cultural context. International Journal of Complexity in Leadership and Management. 1 (4), 395-395

Fu, H., (2011). The bumpy road to socialise nature: sex education in Japan. Culture, Health & Sexuality. 13 (8), 903-915

Books (3)

Fu, H., (2023). Temporary and Gig Economy Workers in China and Japan: The Culture of Unequal Work. Oxford University Press. 0192849697. 9780192849694

Fu, H., (2016). Temporary Agency Work and Globalisation Beyond Flexibility and Inequality. Routledge. 1317046269. 9781317046264

Fu, H., (2011). An Emerging Non-regular Labour Force in Japan The Dignity of Dispatched Workers. Routledge. 0203806867. 9780203806869

Book chapters (7)

Fu, H., (2024). Unveiling the enigma of culture: Reflections on gendered precarious work in China and Japan. In: Routledge Handbook on Feminist Anthropology. Editors: Geller, PL., . Routlledge. 214- 228. 9781003366133

Fu, H., (2023). Introduction: The culture of unequal work: Temps and giggers in China and Japan. In: Temporary and Gig Economy Workers in China and Japan: The Culture of Unequal Work. Editors: Fu, H., . Oxford University Press. 1- 23. 0192849697

Fu, H., (2023). Old and new inequalities: Citizenly discounting and precarious work in a changing China. In: Temporary and Gig Economy Workers in China and Japan: The Culture of Unequal Work. Editors: Fu, H., . Oxford University Press. 24- 47. 0192849697. 9780192849694

Fu, H., (2020). Employment regulation and practices: The production and consumption of non-regular work. In: Routledge Handbook on Contemporary Japan. Editors: Takeda., H. and Williams, M., . Routledge. 266- 277. 9781138668614

Fu, H. and et al., (2018). The Future of Work – Good Jobs for All. In: Rethinking Society for the 21st Century: Volume 1, Socio-Economic Transformations Report of the International Panel on Social Progress. Editors: IPSP, . Cambridge University Press. 255- 312

Fu, H., (2016). Introduction: Temporary Agency Work and Globalisation. In: Temporary Agency Work and Globalisation: Beyond Flexibility and Inequality.. Routledge. 1- 15

Fu, H., (2016). Conclusion: Beyond Flexibility and Inequality.. In: Temporary Agency Work and Globalisation: Beyond Flexibility and Inequality. Editors: Fu, H., . Routledge. 205- 209

Contact

h.fu@essex.ac.uk

Location:

EBS.3.16, Colchester Campus