A political and comparative-historical sociologist, Yueran Zhang specializes in the comparative studies of capitalism(s), socialism(s), and transitions in between, with a special emphasis on political economy and the dynamics of development in the Global South. He is particularly intrigued by questions pertaining to the politics of class, (de)mobilization, democracy, production and social reproduction.

Zhang’s dissertation Whither Socialism? Workers’ Democracy and the Class Politics of China’s Post-Mao Transition to Capitalism provides a distinct class-based explanation of China’s transition from socialism to capitalism. His previous research used the case of taxation on private home ownership as a lens to both make sense of a key moment – the “Chongqing Model” – in China’s recent political history and advance a Bourdieusian state theory.

Zhang earned his PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2024.