Ep.7 (S4): Biao Xiang On Logistical Power and the constraint of Mobility

The Migration Podcast

In this episode, Yixin Zhang interviews Biao Xiang, about how analyzing processes of control over mobility and immobility can help explain the different consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan and Shanghai, in China. This research is from Professor Xiang’s latest paper, called, “Logistical Power and Logistical Violence”. It was recently published in the Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies. Here is the link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24761028.2023.2285022 The paper is available Open Access. Biao Xiang is a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, in Halle, Germany. There, he also leads the “Mo lab”, which is dedicated to migration and mobility studies. The lab addresses questions around human experiences and perceptions of mobility, including how social resources, such as human emotions and commitment are organized and distributed. The lab also seeks to prioritize issues that migrants themselves are concerned with, for instance, attachment and sacrifice. Yixin Zhang is a PhD student at the Population Research Center, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Her research interests include migrants' community participation, social integration, internal migrants in China, and social capital.