Ying Xiao is professor of the Department of Sociology, Shanghai University, China. He also is the executive-editor-in-chief of Chinese Journal of Sociology (CJS). He got his PHD in Sociology from Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (GSCASS).
Ying Xiao’s main research interest is social theory. His published papers and works are on the following topics: reflexivity, risk society, social identity, civil society, and meta-theory of sociology. He combed the multi meanings and confused usages of the term reflexivity and constructed a category “self-reflection and self-refutation” as an analytical tool to study the meta-theory of sociology and explain the theoretical logic of risk society of Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens. On civil society, he traced back to the different origins — political orientation and economic orientation — of civil society thoughts in Europe and discussed the internal tension in modern civil society.
Ying Xiao is studying the cultural foundation of individualism in China. In this research, he tries to explore (1) the history, cultural and social consequences, and modern transformation of “chaxugeju”(????), (2) the complicated relations among collectivism, individualism, and selfishness in the context of “chaxugeju”. (CCS Visiting Fellow, December 2012- November 2013)