Qian Zhang

My research is concerned about vulnerable groups and peripheral spaces.

I earned a PhD degree in Human Geography from Stockholm University. My PhD thesis "Pastoralists and the Environmental State" (2015) used a political ecology approach to critically explore the complex politics, spatial tensions and interactions between environmental change, grassland use, policy interventions and mobilities in a pastoral context of Northern China.

Migration has been a central topic in my research and over years through several research projects it has expanded to plural forms including environmental migration, labor migration and migrant integration. This migration focus is also intersected with my interests in agrarian/rural change, political ecology and recently digital geographies. I am skilled in mixed and qualitative methods and my study areas focus on Sweden and China.

I have published in different forms and in high-quality scientific journals such as Geoforum, Digital Geography and Society, Technology in Society, Journal of Rural Studies, Journal of Political Ecology, Applied Geography, and NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research. Please see my page on Research Gate.

I have done peer reviews for more than ten high-quality scientific journals and am currently on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal Rural Landscape: Society, Environment and History.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Ma, L., Zhang, Q., Wang, S., Yang, Z., & Cheng, L. (2026). Exploring the farmland-livelihood nexus among vulnerable rural households: A case study from a main grain production region of Northeast China. Journal of Rural Studies, 123, 103986. doi: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103986 External link.

Zhang, Q., & Caretta, M. A. (2025). Climate change adaptation and digitalization: a critical review towards equal and just agricultural transformations. Climate and Development, 1-9. doi: 10.1080/17565529.2025.2534833 External link. (Open Access)

Webster, N. A., & Zhang, Q. (2025). Strategic silences for normative work: Inclusions and exclusions of migrant labour in policy foregrounding of the Swedish gig economy, Geoforum, 158, 104157. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.104157 External link.(Open Access)

Zhang, Q., & Webster, N. A. (2024). Positioning rural geography into platform economies: Why we need to ask new questions when researching the rural platform economy. In Geographies of the Platform Economy: Critical Perspectives, 121-136. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-53594-9_9 External link.(Open Access)

Zhang, Q., & Wang, X. (2024). The globalization-migration nexus across China’s internal and international human movements, In Handbook of Migration and Globalisation, 215-233. doi: 10.4337/9781800887657.00023 External link. (Open Access)

CURRENT PROJECTS

2026-2029, Navigating the shifting scales of food preparedness: societal and farmer resistance to crises External link., funded by the Swedish Research Council, PI: Anders Wästfelt, Stockholm University.

2025-2028, Ignored work: Channelling temporary migration to the 'New Green North’ External link, opens in new window., funded by the Swedish Research Council, PI: Charlotta Hedberg, Umeå University.

2023-2026, Digital Nature External link.: Everyday social-technical relations and practices within Sweden’s rural agriculture and wild harvesting industries, funded by the Swedish Research Council special programme Social Consequences of Digitalization. I am the project leader, project based at Stockholm University.

2025-2026, Why don't more people want to work in the kitchen? – A study of restaurant employees with participant observation through work External link., funded by BFUF (Besöksnäringens forsknings- och utvecklingsfond), PI: Maria Thulemark, Dalarna University.

News: One interview article is published in the magazine Hotellrevyn. https://www.hotellrevyn.se/forskare-delar-slitet-i-koket/ External link.

2024-2025, Phoenix – Human Mobility, Global Challenges and Resilience in an Age of Social Stress External link., Cluster 2 - Governance of Climate Mobilities, funded by Belmont Forum, PI: A. Önver Cetrez, Uppsala University.

COMPLETED PROJECTS (SELECTED)

2023 – 2024 Links between changing climate and farming practices in Swedish and Nordic rural contexts,funded by Uppdrag Landsbygd, PI.

2020 – 2023 Integration Delivered? Unveiling immigrant experiences in the growing Swedish gig economy, funded by Formas, co-applicant.

2020 Simulating green Sahara with an earth system model, funded by Swedish Research Council, participant researcher.

2019 – 2020 Agents of Migration: A comparative study of migration intermediaries in three labour market sectors, 2018-2021, funded by Swedish Research Council, participant researcher.

2015 – 2016 Rethinking the links between farm modernisation, rural development and resilience in a world of increasing demands and finite resources (RETHINK), funded by European Commission RURAGRI ERA-NET, participant researcher (postdoc).

2012 – 2013 Chinese migrant workers in Sweden, funded by International Organization for Migration, participant researcher.