Alex Long Chen

Bio

Alex Long Chen (陈龙) is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Policy and Development Studies at China Agricultural University. His research focuses on China’s digital economy and platform labor, organizational management, the meaning of work among contemporary Chinese youth, and the formation of work-related skills. His book, Driven by Data: Food Delivery Riders and Labor Order in China’s Platform Economy), was published in November 2024. Drawing on six months of firsthand experience working as a food delivery rider for one of China’s largest platform companies, the book investigates how algorithmic management structures daily labor and reorganizes social relations under digital capitalism. Chen also published A Journey of Discovering Sociology: What Sociology is in 20 Contemporary American Sociologists’ Eyes, a book he worked on while a Visiting Fellow in the Harvard Department of Sociology in 2016-17. During his current visiting year at the Fairbank Center, he is continuing this project—A Journey of Discovering Sociology II—by interviewing additional U.S.-based sociologists on the question of how to conduct valuable and meaningful sociological research.

Research Interests: China’s digital economy and platform work, organization and management, the meaning of work, work skill