Research Areas
Areas of Expertise: Economic Sociology, Networks, Digitalization, Professions & Organizations, Social Research Methods
Regional Expertise: East Asia
Regional Expertise: East Asia
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles & Book Chapters
Au, Anson. Forthcoming. “Bourdieusian Boundary-Making, Social Networks, and Capital Conversion: Inequality among International Degree-Holders in Hong Kong.” Cultural Sociology.
Au, Anson. Forthcoming. “How Professionals Cooperate through Conflicts: Networks and Social Face in the Workplace.” Cultural Sociology.
Au, Anson. 2023. “Social Capital Exchanges in Voluntary Associations and Work Organizations: A Network Perspective.” Sociology Compass 17(1), Article e13031.
Au, Anson. 2022. “A Black Feminist Approach to Antiracist Qualitative Research Methods: The Legacy of bell hooks.” Current Sociology (Online First). DOI: 10.1177/00113921221146583
Au, Anson. 2022. “Transnational Cross-Cultural Research: Modern Challenges and Solutions for Field Access, Data Collection, and Analysis.” Pp.335-355 in P. Liamputtong (ed.), Handbook of Qualitative Cross-Cultural Research. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Au, Anson. 2022. “Consumer Logics and the Relational Performance of Selling High-Risk Goods: The Case of Elective Cosmetic Surgery.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy (Online First). DOI: 10.1108/IJSSP-07-2022-0180
Au, Anson. 2022. “Framing the Purchase of Human Goods: The Case of Cosmetic Surgery Consumption in Capitalist South Korea.” Symbolic Interaction (Online First). DOI: 10.1002/symb.623
Au, Anson. 2022. “Cryptocurrencies and the Promise of Individual Economic Sovereignty in an Age of Digitalization: A Critical Appraisal.” Sociological Review (Online First). DOI: 10.1177/00380261221127858
Au, Anson. 2022. "Narrative Metaphors as a Qualitative Analytical Tool: Networked Webs of Oppression and Pedagogical Care for People of Colour in Academia." International Journal of Qualitative Methods 21 (Online First). DOI: 10.1177/16094069221133637
Au, Anson. 2022. “Network Discrimination among LGBTQ Minorities in Taiwan after Same-Sex Marriage Legalization: A Goffmanian Micro-sociological Approach.” Critical Asian Studies 54(4): 594-618.
Au, Anson. 2022. “Guanxi in an Age of Digitalization: Toward Value Homophily in New Tie-Formation.” Journal of Chinese Sociology 9, Article 7: 1-19.
Au, Anson. 2022. “Decolonization and Qualitative Epistemology: Toward Reconciliation in the Academy.” Qualitative Social Work (Online First). DOI: 10.1177/14733250221108626
Au, Anson. 2022. “An Ethnographic Toolkit for Studying the Networking Pathways of Hard-to-Reach Populations: The Case of Cosmetic Surgery Consumers in South Korea.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 21 (Online First). DOI: 10.1177/16094069221101962
Liu, Sida, Daniel Blocq, Ali Honari, and Anson Au. 2022. "Professional flows: Lateral moves of law firm partners in Hong Kong, 1994–2018." Journal of Professions and Organization 9(1): 1-19. (Lead Article)
Au, Anson. 2022. “FinTech Innovation and Knowledge Flows in Hong Kong’s Financial Sector: A Social Network Analysis Approach.” Journal of Asia Business Studies 16(2): 294-307.
Au, Anson. 2021. “Guanxi 2.0: The Exchange of Likes in Social Networking Sites.” Information, Communication, & Society 24(13): 1891-1906.
Au, Anson. 2021. “The Economic Costs of Protests and Policy Recommendations for Preventing them in Hong Kong.” Journal of Chinese Economic and Foreign Trade Studies 14(3): 277-292.
Au, Anson. 2021. “Over-Complexifying Social Reality: A Critical Exploration of Systematicity and Rigidification in Ethnographic Practice and Writing.” The Qualitative Report 26(4): 1161-1178.
Au, Anson. 2021. “Japanese Sociology in a Global Network: Internationalization, Disciplinary Development, and Minority Integration in the Road Ahead.” International Journal of Japanese Sociology 30(1): 94-121.
Liu, Sida and Anson Au. 2020. “The Gateway to Global China: Hong Kong and the Future of Chinese Law Firms.” Wisconsin International Law Journal 37(2): 308-349.
Au, Anson. 2020. “Reconceptualizing the Generation in a Digital(izing) Modernity: Digitalization, Social Networking Sites, and the Flattening of Generations.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 50(2): 163-183.
Au, Anson. 2020. “Networks, Politics, and the Literary Public Sphere: The Foundation of Modern Democracy in Taiwan (1970s-1990s).” Sage Open 10(2): 1-10.
Au, Anson. 2020. “Feminist Methods in a “Post-Truth” Political Climate: Objectives, Strategies, and Divisions.” Sociological Spectrum 40(2): 99-115.
Au, Anson. 2020. “What a Highly Controversial Ethnography says about Tensions, Problematizations, and Inequality in Contemporary Ethnographic Practice.” Qualitative Research Journal 20(1): 140-151.
Au, Anson. 2019. “The Embodiment of Social Capital at Individual and Communal Levels: Action, Rewards, Inequality, and New Directions.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 39(9/10): 812-830.
Au, Anson. 2019. “Why Physician Guidance Matters: A Night of Neuralgia, Meningitis, and WebMD.” Annals of Family Medicine 17(5): 462-464.
Au, Anson. 2019. “Re-examining Adorno on Democracy and the Regression of Consciousness: Towards Social Transformation.” Social Thought and Research 35(1): 53-78.
Au, Anson. 2019. “Abandon Canon in American Sociology.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 39(5/6): 494-504.
Hopkin, Gareth, Anson Au, Jane V. Collier, John S. Yudkin, Sanjay Basu, and Huseyin Naci. 2019. “Combining Multiple Treatment Comparisons with Personalized Patient Preferences: A Randomized Trial of an Interactive Platform for Statin Treatment Selection.” Medical Decision Making 39(7): 264-277.
Au, Anson. 2019. “Thinking about Cross-Cultural Differences in Qualitative Interviews: Practices for More Responsive and Trusting Encounters.” The Qualitative Report 24(1): 58-77.
O’Brien, Kelly K., Patricia Solomon, Francisco Ibáñez-Carrasco, Will Chegwidden, Esther McDonnell, Darren Brown, Richard Harding, Colm Bergin, Catherine Worthington, Stephen Tattle, Larry Baxter, Ayesha Nayar, David M. Kietrys, Mary Lou Galantino, Tammy Yates, Canada-International HIV and Rehabilitation Research Collaborative (CIHRRC). 2018. “Evolution of an International Research Collaborative in HIV and Rehabilitation: Community Engaged Process, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations.” Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action 12(4): 395-408.
Au, Anson. 2018. “Online Physicians, Offline Patients: Professional Identity and Ethics in Social Media Use.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 38(5/6): 474-483.
Au, Anson. 2018. “Finding a Doctor to Trust: The Journey of a Sexual Minority Patient.” Family Medicine 50(7): 546-547.
Au, Anson. 2018. “Sociology and Science: The Making of the Social Scientific Method.” The American Sociologist 49(1): 98-115.
Au, Anson. 2017. “Reconceptualizing Social Movements and Power: Towards a Social Ecological Approach.” The Sociological Quarterly 58(3): 519-545.
Au, Anson and Matthew M. Chew. 2017. “How do you Feel? Managing Emotional Reaction, Conveyance, and Detachment on Facebook and Instagram.” Bulletin of Science, Technology, & Society 37(3): 127-137.
Au, Anson. 2017. “Collective Identity, Organization, and Public Reaction in Protests: A Qualitative Case Study of Hong Kong and Taiwan.” Social Sciences 6(4), Article 150: 1-17. Published Online.
Au, Anson. 2017. “Redefining the Family in Mental Health: Understanding Norms and Improving Professional Practice.” Mental Health in Family Medicine 13(4): 566-569.
Au, Anson. 2017. “The Sociological Study of Stress: An Analysis and Critique of the Stress Process Model.” European Journal of Mental Health 12(1): 53-72.
Au, Anson. 2017. “The Sunflower Movement and the Taiwanese National Identity: Building an Anti-Sinoist Civic Nationalism.” Berkeley Journal of Sociology 27. Published Online.
Au, Anson. 2017. “Low Mental Health Treatment Participation and Confucianist Familial Norms among East Asian Immigrants: A Critical Review.” International Journal of Mental Health 46(1): 1-17. (Lead Article)
Au, Anson. 2016. “Reconceptualizing Online Free Spaces: A Case Study of the Sunflower Movement.” Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia 15(2): 145-161.
● 2016 Best Student Paper Award, International Network for Social Network Analysis and World Association for Triple-Helix and Future Strategies Studies
Landy, Rachel, Anson Au, Cathy Cameron, Brent Oliver, Shawna O’Hearn, Lynn Cockburn, Larry Baxter, Katherine Robrigado, Kelly O’Brien, Debra Cameron, Stephanie Nixon. 2016. “Educational Strategies to Enhance Reflexivity among Clinicians and Health Professional Students: A Scoping Study.” Forum: Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research 17(3), Article 14: 1-25.
● Integrated into World Health Organization’s 2019 Quality Rights Core Training Manual for Mental Health & Social Services (Freedom from Coercion, Violence, and Abuse)
Landy, Rachel, Anson Au, Cathy Cameron, Brent Oliver, Shawna O’Hearn, Lynn Cockburn, Larry Baxter, Katherine Robrigado, Kelly O’Brien, Debra Cameron, Stephanie Nixon. 2016. “Developing Accountability to Difference: A Scoping Study of Enhancing Reflexivity in Health Professions Education.” Medical Education 50(Suppl.1): 68-69.
Au, Anson. 2015. “‘Coming Out,’ Stigma, and Support: Distress and Health Consequences among Sexual Minorities within a Stress Process Model Framework.” Health Perspectives 6(1): 1-16. (Lead Article)
Au, Anson. Forthcoming. “How Professionals Cooperate through Conflicts: Networks and Social Face in the Workplace.” Cultural Sociology.
Au, Anson. 2023. “Social Capital Exchanges in Voluntary Associations and Work Organizations: A Network Perspective.” Sociology Compass 17(1), Article e13031.
Au, Anson. 2022. “A Black Feminist Approach to Antiracist Qualitative Research Methods: The Legacy of bell hooks.” Current Sociology (Online First). DOI: 10.1177/00113921221146583
Au, Anson. 2022. “Transnational Cross-Cultural Research: Modern Challenges and Solutions for Field Access, Data Collection, and Analysis.” Pp.335-355 in P. Liamputtong (ed.), Handbook of Qualitative Cross-Cultural Research. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Au, Anson. 2022. “Consumer Logics and the Relational Performance of Selling High-Risk Goods: The Case of Elective Cosmetic Surgery.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy (Online First). DOI: 10.1108/IJSSP-07-2022-0180
Au, Anson. 2022. “Framing the Purchase of Human Goods: The Case of Cosmetic Surgery Consumption in Capitalist South Korea.” Symbolic Interaction (Online First). DOI: 10.1002/symb.623
Au, Anson. 2022. “Cryptocurrencies and the Promise of Individual Economic Sovereignty in an Age of Digitalization: A Critical Appraisal.” Sociological Review (Online First). DOI: 10.1177/00380261221127858
Au, Anson. 2022. "Narrative Metaphors as a Qualitative Analytical Tool: Networked Webs of Oppression and Pedagogical Care for People of Colour in Academia." International Journal of Qualitative Methods 21 (Online First). DOI: 10.1177/16094069221133637
Au, Anson. 2022. “Network Discrimination among LGBTQ Minorities in Taiwan after Same-Sex Marriage Legalization: A Goffmanian Micro-sociological Approach.” Critical Asian Studies 54(4): 594-618.
Au, Anson. 2022. “Guanxi in an Age of Digitalization: Toward Value Homophily in New Tie-Formation.” Journal of Chinese Sociology 9, Article 7: 1-19.
Au, Anson. 2022. “Decolonization and Qualitative Epistemology: Toward Reconciliation in the Academy.” Qualitative Social Work (Online First). DOI: 10.1177/14733250221108626
Au, Anson. 2022. “An Ethnographic Toolkit for Studying the Networking Pathways of Hard-to-Reach Populations: The Case of Cosmetic Surgery Consumers in South Korea.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 21 (Online First). DOI: 10.1177/16094069221101962
Liu, Sida, Daniel Blocq, Ali Honari, and Anson Au. 2022. "Professional flows: Lateral moves of law firm partners in Hong Kong, 1994–2018." Journal of Professions and Organization 9(1): 1-19. (Lead Article)
- Shortlisted for the 2022 biennial Journal of Professions and Organization Best Article Award
Au, Anson. 2022. “FinTech Innovation and Knowledge Flows in Hong Kong’s Financial Sector: A Social Network Analysis Approach.” Journal of Asia Business Studies 16(2): 294-307.
Au, Anson. 2021. “Guanxi 2.0: The Exchange of Likes in Social Networking Sites.” Information, Communication, & Society 24(13): 1891-1906.
Au, Anson. 2021. “The Economic Costs of Protests and Policy Recommendations for Preventing them in Hong Kong.” Journal of Chinese Economic and Foreign Trade Studies 14(3): 277-292.
Au, Anson. 2021. “Over-Complexifying Social Reality: A Critical Exploration of Systematicity and Rigidification in Ethnographic Practice and Writing.” The Qualitative Report 26(4): 1161-1178.
Au, Anson. 2021. “Japanese Sociology in a Global Network: Internationalization, Disciplinary Development, and Minority Integration in the Road Ahead.” International Journal of Japanese Sociology 30(1): 94-121.
- Article honored as the organizing themes of the 2020 Japanese Sociological Society 93rd Annual Meeting (“Toward the Realization of Social Equality” and ”Recognition of Diversity and Integration of Minorities”)
Liu, Sida and Anson Au. 2020. “The Gateway to Global China: Hong Kong and the Future of Chinese Law Firms.” Wisconsin International Law Journal 37(2): 308-349.
- Covered by The Economist
Au, Anson. 2020. “Reconceptualizing the Generation in a Digital(izing) Modernity: Digitalization, Social Networking Sites, and the Flattening of Generations.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 50(2): 163-183.
Au, Anson. 2020. “Networks, Politics, and the Literary Public Sphere: The Foundation of Modern Democracy in Taiwan (1970s-1990s).” Sage Open 10(2): 1-10.
Au, Anson. 2020. “Feminist Methods in a “Post-Truth” Political Climate: Objectives, Strategies, and Divisions.” Sociological Spectrum 40(2): 99-115.
Au, Anson. 2020. “What a Highly Controversial Ethnography says about Tensions, Problematizations, and Inequality in Contemporary Ethnographic Practice.” Qualitative Research Journal 20(1): 140-151.
Au, Anson. 2019. “The Embodiment of Social Capital at Individual and Communal Levels: Action, Rewards, Inequality, and New Directions.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 39(9/10): 812-830.
Au, Anson. 2019. “Why Physician Guidance Matters: A Night of Neuralgia, Meningitis, and WebMD.” Annals of Family Medicine 17(5): 462-464.
Au, Anson. 2019. “Re-examining Adorno on Democracy and the Regression of Consciousness: Towards Social Transformation.” Social Thought and Research 35(1): 53-78.
Au, Anson. 2019. “Abandon Canon in American Sociology.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 39(5/6): 494-504.
Hopkin, Gareth, Anson Au, Jane V. Collier, John S. Yudkin, Sanjay Basu, and Huseyin Naci. 2019. “Combining Multiple Treatment Comparisons with Personalized Patient Preferences: A Randomized Trial of an Interactive Platform for Statin Treatment Selection.” Medical Decision Making 39(7): 264-277.
Au, Anson. 2019. “Thinking about Cross-Cultural Differences in Qualitative Interviews: Practices for More Responsive and Trusting Encounters.” The Qualitative Report 24(1): 58-77.
O’Brien, Kelly K., Patricia Solomon, Francisco Ibáñez-Carrasco, Will Chegwidden, Esther McDonnell, Darren Brown, Richard Harding, Colm Bergin, Catherine Worthington, Stephen Tattle, Larry Baxter, Ayesha Nayar, David M. Kietrys, Mary Lou Galantino, Tammy Yates, Canada-International HIV and Rehabilitation Research Collaborative (CIHRRC). 2018. “Evolution of an International Research Collaborative in HIV and Rehabilitation: Community Engaged Process, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations.” Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action 12(4): 395-408.
Au, Anson. 2018. “Online Physicians, Offline Patients: Professional Identity and Ethics in Social Media Use.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 38(5/6): 474-483.
Au, Anson. 2018. “Finding a Doctor to Trust: The Journey of a Sexual Minority Patient.” Family Medicine 50(7): 546-547.
Au, Anson. 2018. “Sociology and Science: The Making of the Social Scientific Method.” The American Sociologist 49(1): 98-115.
- Most downloaded article in The American Sociologist
Au, Anson. 2017. “Reconceptualizing Social Movements and Power: Towards a Social Ecological Approach.” The Sociological Quarterly 58(3): 519-545.
- Honorary Mention for the 2019 biennial The Sociological Quarterly Best Article Award for an article published between 2017-2018 and judged by the Midwest Sociological Society to represent “the highest quality of research and methodology, theoretically-informed inquiry, and publicly important scholarship”
Au, Anson and Matthew M. Chew. 2017. “How do you Feel? Managing Emotional Reaction, Conveyance, and Detachment on Facebook and Instagram.” Bulletin of Science, Technology, & Society 37(3): 127-137.
Au, Anson. 2017. “Collective Identity, Organization, and Public Reaction in Protests: A Qualitative Case Study of Hong Kong and Taiwan.” Social Sciences 6(4), Article 150: 1-17. Published Online.
Au, Anson. 2017. “Redefining the Family in Mental Health: Understanding Norms and Improving Professional Practice.” Mental Health in Family Medicine 13(4): 566-569.
Au, Anson. 2017. “The Sociological Study of Stress: An Analysis and Critique of the Stress Process Model.” European Journal of Mental Health 12(1): 53-72.
Au, Anson. 2017. “The Sunflower Movement and the Taiwanese National Identity: Building an Anti-Sinoist Civic Nationalism.” Berkeley Journal of Sociology 27. Published Online.
Au, Anson. 2017. “Low Mental Health Treatment Participation and Confucianist Familial Norms among East Asian Immigrants: A Critical Review.” International Journal of Mental Health 46(1): 1-17. (Lead Article)
Au, Anson. 2016. “Reconceptualizing Online Free Spaces: A Case Study of the Sunflower Movement.” Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia 15(2): 145-161.
● 2016 Best Student Paper Award, International Network for Social Network Analysis and World Association for Triple-Helix and Future Strategies Studies
Landy, Rachel, Anson Au, Cathy Cameron, Brent Oliver, Shawna O’Hearn, Lynn Cockburn, Larry Baxter, Katherine Robrigado, Kelly O’Brien, Debra Cameron, Stephanie Nixon. 2016. “Educational Strategies to Enhance Reflexivity among Clinicians and Health Professional Students: A Scoping Study.” Forum: Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research 17(3), Article 14: 1-25.
● Integrated into World Health Organization’s 2019 Quality Rights Core Training Manual for Mental Health & Social Services (Freedom from Coercion, Violence, and Abuse)
Landy, Rachel, Anson Au, Cathy Cameron, Brent Oliver, Shawna O’Hearn, Lynn Cockburn, Larry Baxter, Katherine Robrigado, Kelly O’Brien, Debra Cameron, Stephanie Nixon. 2016. “Developing Accountability to Difference: A Scoping Study of Enhancing Reflexivity in Health Professions Education.” Medical Education 50(Suppl.1): 68-69.
Au, Anson. 2015. “‘Coming Out,’ Stigma, and Support: Distress and Health Consequences among Sexual Minorities within a Stress Process Model Framework.” Health Perspectives 6(1): 1-16. (Lead Article)
Non-Refereed Publications
Au, Anson. 2021. “Japanese Sociology and the 2019 Japanese Sociological Society Annual Conference.” Japanese Sociological Society (Forthcoming).
Au, Anson. 2019. “K-pop deaths show East Asia must end the stigma, and the solitude that surrounds mental health.” International Sociological Association—Public Sociology. https://socialjustice.isaportal.org/public-sociology/december-2019/
Au, Anson. 2019. “Community Report: Asian Immigrant Women Workers Organizing in California’s In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Sector.” UCLA Downtown Labor Center (Jennifer Jihye Chun & Cynthia Cranford 2019). Translation into Traditional Chinese and Cantonese.
Au, Anson. 2019. “Political Contention in the University: New Conceptualizations of Social Networking Sites and New Frontiers for Political Strife.” Critical Mass 44(1): 3-4.
Au, Anson. 2018. “Leadership: Collaborative Leadership Models, not Hierarchies.” LSE National Newsletter. Published Online.
Au, Anson. 2017. “What is Social Responsibility?” LSE National Newsletter. Published Online.
Au, Anson. 2017. “A Social Ecological Approach for Ethnography: Flexibilizing Roles and Remembering Social Embeddedness.”Thinking Methods: Explorations in Social Research Methodology. Published Online.
Au, Anson. 2015. “Political Ideologies, Institutions, and Health: The Role of Privatization.” Juxtaposition Global Health Magazine 8(1). Published Online.
Au, Anson. 2019. “K-pop deaths show East Asia must end the stigma, and the solitude that surrounds mental health.” International Sociological Association—Public Sociology. https://socialjustice.isaportal.org/public-sociology/december-2019/
Au, Anson. 2019. “Community Report: Asian Immigrant Women Workers Organizing in California’s In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Sector.” UCLA Downtown Labor Center (Jennifer Jihye Chun & Cynthia Cranford 2019). Translation into Traditional Chinese and Cantonese.
Au, Anson. 2019. “Political Contention in the University: New Conceptualizations of Social Networking Sites and New Frontiers for Political Strife.” Critical Mass 44(1): 3-4.
Au, Anson. 2018. “Leadership: Collaborative Leadership Models, not Hierarchies.” LSE National Newsletter. Published Online.
Au, Anson. 2017. “What is Social Responsibility?” LSE National Newsletter. Published Online.
Au, Anson. 2017. “A Social Ecological Approach for Ethnography: Flexibilizing Roles and Remembering Social Embeddedness.”Thinking Methods: Explorations in Social Research Methodology. Published Online.
Au, Anson. 2015. “Political Ideologies, Institutions, and Health: The Role of Privatization.” Juxtaposition Global Health Magazine 8(1). Published Online.
