Dr Linzhi H. Zhang

Linzhi's research has developed into a cultural sociology of artistic labour, driven by a fundamental question: whether and how work under capitalism can remain a generative life activity rather than alienated toil. Artistic labour offers a revealing lens: celebrated as self-realising autonomous work yet marked by precarity and inequality. Having examined the institutional production of art, structural inequalities in art careers, and artists’ work cultures, Linzhi currently explores the impact of AI and automation on creative work and human labour. Building theory from China, she distils its intellectual traditions and cultural phenomena into sociological insights beyond epistemological binaries towards deeper explanatory foundations.

Key expertise: Artistic labour, Marxism, feminism, work culture, China

Linzhi examines labour issues in the art world from a cultural sociological perspective. She is currently working on a new book that addresses the tension between artistic practices and the productivist work culture in China. Her research has been supported by Cambridge Society of Political Economy, the British Academy, and the Australian Centre for China in the World.

Working paper: Contesting Symbolic Violence at Art-Labour Dichotomy: Art and Agency of Chinese Rural-origin Artists

Upcoming book: Making Contemporary Art in China: Careers and Creations through Exhibitions. British Academy Monographs, Liverpool University Press

Linzhi teaches the core course on MSc "Culture and Society (SO4D3)" and BSc courses "Advanced Social Theory (SO201)", and "Class, Culture and Meritocracy (SO314)".

Linzhi welcomes projects that address how culture production and reproduction mediate, reinforce, and reproduce social inequalities.