Academic Staff
KOO, Anita C.H. 顧靜華
Professor
Ph.D. (University of Oxford, England)
Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching - Taught Postgraduate)
Research Interests:
Sociology of education; Youth studies; Class inequality and mobility; Gender studies; Migrant population; Contemporary China
 | anitakoo@hkbu.edu.hk |
 | Staff CV |
 | Research Project |
 | WYS1056 |
| Tel: | 3411 5942 |
Anita Koo is a sociologist whose research focuses on social stratification, educational inequality, and social mobility. Her work examines how class, gender, and migration status and trajectories shape educational opportunities and life chances, with particular attention to the processes of social mobility and social reproduction. She has been awarded several external research grants to study education-to-work transitions and the changing patterns of educational inequality associated with the rapid expansion of vocational/ professional and higher education in Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong.
Her research has appeared in internationally recognized journals, including Sociology, Journal of Education Policy, The Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Educational Review, and Chinese Sociological Review. Her current research compares the educational experiences and outcomes of students entering higher education through different pathways and explores the implications of higher education expansion for social inequality. More broadly, her work aims to enhance understanding of the ways in which class and gender relations are reproduced and transformed within mass higher education systems, and to inform policies and practices that promote greater educational equity and social mobility.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Course(s) Taught:
| SOCI 3017 | Health and Society |
| SOCI 4026 | Selected Topics in Contemporary Sociology I |
| From Jan-2027 to Dec-2029 | “Degrees of Inequality: University-to-work Transitions of Direct-entry and Transfer Students in Hong Kong” RGC General Research Fund, Hong Kong Government. As PI. HKD $ 922,000. |
| From Jan-2023 to Jun-2025 | "Vocational/Professional Training against a Changing Landscape of Higher Education in Hong Kong: Choices and Experiences of Students in Accredited Nursing Programs'" RGC General Research Fund, Hong Kong Government. As PI. HKD $961,500. |
| From Jan-2018 to Dec-2021 | "‘Gendering the New Generation of Chinese Workers in Vocational Schools’" RGC General Research Fund, Hong Kong Government. As PI. HKD $676,000. |
| From Jun-2016 to Dec-2019 | "‘Learning to Labor: Social Media and Migrant Labor Protection in Mainland China’" RGC Collaborative Research Fund Scheme, Hong Kong Government. As Co-PI. HKD $4,677,600. |
| From Jul-2014 to Jun-2019 | "‘Research on Globalization, Migration and Labour’" Donation from Victor and William Fung Foundation Ltd. As Co-PI. HKD $2,728,000. |
| From Jan-2013 to Jun-2016 | "‘Vocational Education and Social Mobility of Migrant Youth in China'" RGC General Research Fund, Hong Kong Government. As PI. HKD $1,028,000. |
PUBLICATIONS
Xu, H., & Koo, A.* (2026). Moving from a metropolis to a smaller city? The continuous mobility and adulthood transition of well-educated rural migrants in interior China. Children’s Geographies. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2026.2694343
Siu, K. & Koo, A. (2026). Extended case across time and borders: Global ethnography of factory regimes, migration channels, and skill transfer in China, Vietnam, and Japan. Critical Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205261469068
Cheung, K., Cham, C., & Koo, A.* (2026). Assessing professional values in nursing education: Adaption and validation of the Hong Kong Nurses Professional Values Scale – Revised (HK-NPVS-R). BMC Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-026-04661-5
Koo, A.*, Wong, Y.L., & Cheung, K. (2025). Access to top universities through alternative pathways: Experiences of transfer students in Hong Kong. Educational Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2025.2551021
Xu, H., & Koo, A.* (2025). The developmental citizenship regime and the settlement plans of aspiring middle-class migrants in China’s hinterland metropolises. Citizenship Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2025.2552692
Koo, A., & Pun, N., (2024). Clashing Gender in the Age of Transnational Infrastructural Capitalism: The Vocational Education and Subject Making of China’s Future Workers. Positions 32(4): 797‒820. https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847- 11306796
Yang, C.Y., & Koo, A.* (2024). Transitions across Borders: Migration Aspirations of Young People from Kinmen, Taiwan. Population, Space and Place 30(8): e2843. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2843
Sakamoto, A., & Koo, A. (2024). American versus East Asian Norms and Labor Market Institutions Affecting Socioeconomic Inequality. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 90, 100914. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2024.100914
Koo, A.*, & Zhan, Y. (2023). Being a Valuable Daughter in a Rural Family: The Relational Identity and Empowered Gender Subjectivities of Female Vocational College Students. The China Review, 23(4), 259‒286.
Pun, N., Hui, B., & Koo, A.* (2023). Youth Work, Prosocial Behaviour, and Micro-foundation of Working-class Solidarity among Vocational School Students in China. Journal of Education and Work, 36(5), 393‒407. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2023.2228721
Yang, C.Y., & Koo, A.* (2023). Hope and Uncertainty at the Periphery in Global Times: Youth Employment in Kinmen, Taiwan. Journal of Youth Studies, 26(4), 522‒537. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2021.2022108
Siu, K. & Koo, A. (2022). Temporary Labor Migration and Skill Transfer in Japan: Migration Experiences and Outcomes of Technical Intern Trainees from Vietnam and China. Journal of Social Issues, 78(3), 606‒626. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12468
Koo, A. (2021). Negotiating Individualisation in Neoliberal China: Youth Transitions among the New Generation of Rural Migrants. Children’s Geographies, 19(6), 754‒765. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2021.1893274
Hui, B., Pun, N., Qui, J., & Koo, A. (2020). Having Less but Giving More: Work experience and prosocial behavior of Chinese working-class youth. Youth & Society, 52(8), 1582‒1601. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X19840239
Koo, A.*, Hui, B., & Pun, N. (2020). Gender Ideologies of Youth in Post-socialist China: their gender-role attitudes, antecedents, and socio-psychological impacts. Chinese Sociological Review, 52(5), 487‒514. https://doi.org/10.1080/21620555.2020.1768366
Lu, B., Koo, A.*, & Pun, N. (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, 67(5), 1050‒1065. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026119845552
Pun, N., & Koo, A.* (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. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2018.1507818
Koo, A. (2016). Expansion of Vocational Education in Neoliberal China: Hope and Despair among Rural Youth. Journal of Education Policy, 31(1), 46‒59. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2015.1073791
Wong, Y.L., & Koo, A.* (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), 516‒545. https://doi.org/1163/15685314-04404004
Pun, N., & Koo, A.* (2015). A ‘World-Class’ (Labor) Camp/us: Foxconn and China’s new generation of labor migrants. Positions, 23(3), 411‒435. https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-3125811
Koo, A.*, Ming, H., & Tsang, B. (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. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038513512729
Koo, A. (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. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2012.678755
Chan, T.W., & Koo, A. (2011). Parenting Style and Youth Outcome in the UK.’ European Sociological Review, 27(3), 364‒384. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcq013
Ng, A., Koo, A., & Pallis, A. (2011). Professionalization of the Shipping Industry via Postgraduate Education. Ocean and Coastal Management, 54(5), 364‒373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2010.10.031
Koo, A.*, & Wong, T. (2009). Family in Flux: Benchmarking Family Changes in Hong Kong Society. Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, 4, 47‒56. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004175679.i-303.10
Ng, A., Koo, A., & Ho, J. (2009). The Motivations and Added-Values of Embarking on Postgraduate Professional Education: Evidences from the maritime industry. Transport Policy, 16(5), 251‒258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2009.08.004
Prof. Koo is President of the 14th Council of Hong Kong Sociological Association https://www.hksa-sociology.org/ (2024-2026).