iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Jing Xu

Lara Wood @larawood.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

We draw on our recent experience of a naturalistic video observation study of children and adolescents in Scotland, the Republic of Congo, and Chinese-Americans in Seattle USA involving a significant amount of local collaboration and partnership @sheinalew.bsky.social @jing-xu.bsky.social

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Lara Wood @larawood.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

As part of our ESRC-funded project on age-based imitation, we have produced a methods paper reflecting on naturalistic observations of children and adolescents in diverse contexts, detailing methods, challenges and recommendations doi.org/10.1002/icd....

doi.org

Naturalistic Observations of Children and Adolescents in Diverse Contexts: Methods, Challenges and Recommendations

The understanding of child development benefits from varied research approaches, including those that reflect the complexity of children's experiences across diverse and real-world contexts. This art...

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Sheina Lew-Levy @sheinalew.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Across cultures, parents consistently reported that children should learn from adults via mechanisms like imitation and teaching, but with peers via collaboration! As always, special thanks to our participants, who took the time to help us understand their points of view!

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Sheina Lew-Levy @sheinalew.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

🚨 In the first publication from our ESRC-funded project on age-based imitation, we asked parents their views on what and how children in four communities should learn from peers and adults. www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

frontiersin.org

Frontiers | Parental perspectives on children’s social learning in four cultures

Social learning is key to the accumulation and transmission of cultural knowledge that underpins human evolutionary success. Cultural context is critical for...

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

New publication: I’m happy to contribute an article on human/AI morality and ethnographic sense-making, through the lens of children’s play, to the inaugural issue, “Cultures of AI Interdisciplinarity,” of Cambridge Forum on AI: Culture and Society! doi.org/10.1017/cfc....

cambridge.org

Reading children’s moral dramas in anthropological fieldnotes: A human–AI hybrid approach | Cambridge Forum on AI: Culture and Society | Cambridge Core

Reading children’s moral dramas in anthropological fieldnotes: A human–AI hybrid approach - Volume 1

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Looking forward to this online event on Saturday June 28th (in Mandarin), to discuss my book with Yunxiang Yan (UCLA), Shao-hua Liu (Academia Sinica), and Xiaojun Zhang (Tsinghua). Our discussion will be moderated by Fei Yan (Tsinghua). Zoom #: 919-4243-1528, link: mcmaster.zoom.us/j/91942431528

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Open Book Publishers @openbookpublish.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

OUT NOW: A Field Guide to Cross-Cultural Research on Childhood Learning reimagines how we study kids—globally. With voices from 21 countries, this inclusive, practical guide bridges disciplines and challenges Western-centric research. buff.ly/0qk1cOs

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Sheina Lew-Levy @sheinalew.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

I'm THRILLED that our book is out. This book, with other 60 contributors from across the globe (!!!) is a love letter to the science we want to do, and a how-to guide for how to do it. Please read it and share it!

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

So happy to be part of this unique book project!

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Anthropology of Children and Youth Interest Group @acyig.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

ACYIG is delighted to present our latest Spotlight on Scholarship, featuring @jing-xu.bsky.social Jing Xu's "‘Unruly’ Children: Historical Fieldnotes and Learning Morality in a Taiwan Village." See more: acyig.americananthro.org/spotlight-on...

How do humans become moral persons? While we tend to emphasize how parents shape the moral personhood of youngsters, what about children’s active learning, especially learning with and from peers? What can children teach us about the nature of ethnography, and about learning and knowledge-making more broadly? My book examines these questions through a unique re-interpretation of historical fieldnotes from the first-ever anthropological study of ethnic Han children, using an innovative human-machine hybrid approach that combines ethnographic interpretation, behavioral coding, SNA (social-network-analysis), and NLP (natural-language-processing) techniques including large-language-models (LLMs). These unpublished fieldnotes were collected by the late anthropologists Arthur and Margery Wolf in Taiwan from 1958-1960, at the height of the Martial-Law era. Their original research was intended as an improved replication of the Six Cultures Study of Child Socialization, a landmark project in the history of anthropology of childhood.

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Nicole Wen @nicolewen.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

1/ 🧵 🚨New paper!🚨 Cross-cultural research is expanding in the social sciences — but are we measuring what we think we are? Our recent paper argues that construct validity is an overlooked challenge, especially in developmental research. Let’s break it down. 🌍 🧠 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

Construct Validity in Cross-Cultural, Developmental Research: Challenges and Strategies for Improvement | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core

Construct Validity in Cross-Cultural, Developmental Research: Challenges and Strategies for Improvement

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Nicole Wen @nicolewen.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

9/ 🙌 A big thank you to my incredible co-authors: @dorsaamir.bsky.social, Jennifer Clegg, Helen Davis, @nataliabdutra.bsky.social, @michelleakline.bsky.social, @sheinalew.bsky.social, Tanya MacGillivray, Gairan Pamei, Yitong Wang, @jing-xu.bsky.social, & @brucerawlings.bsky.social. Very grateful!

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

New Books Network interview about my book (“Unruly” Children @cambridgeup.bsky.social): magical encounters (缘分), when the ethnographic past comes to the ethnographic present via technologies of the future. Really enjoyed the conversation with the host Yadong Li. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/n...

podcasts.apple.com

Jing Xu,

Podcast Episode · New Books Network · 01/22/2025 · 1h 42m

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Our first interview, as associate editors for @amanthro.bsky.social “World Anthropologies” section, featuring the unconventional journey and work of Ethiopian American archaeologist Helina Woldekiros. We talked about traversing different worlds, language, gender, etc.: doi.org/10.1111/aman...

doi.org

<em>American Anthropologist</em> | AAA Anthropology Journal | Wiley Online Library

Click on the article title to read more.

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

看见“作为认知主体的儿童”，my short end-of-year review essay for the Chinese magazine “The Thinker.” mp.weixin.qq.com/s/aaLOy6gsRN...

mp.weixin.qq.com

许晶：看见“作为认知主体的儿童” #2024年终特辑08

关注儿童丰富的思维情感世界

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

My friend Yang Zhan and I hosted a Wenner-Gren workshop in Hong Kong: “Precarity & Urgency: Debating the future of China anthropology”. A rare opportunity to bring scholars together from all around the world, especially half of our participants being Chinese scholars based in mainland institutions.

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YntH6oISeH... Next Monday afternoon (Dec. 9th, Beijing time), virtual book talk at my Alma mater Tsinghua University! Looking forward to reconnecting with friends and colleagues! 北京时间下周一下午三点，连线清华人类学宣讲新书，期待与老师朋友们相聚！

mp.weixin.qq.com

讲座预告 | “任性”的儿童：武雅士经典田野资料再阐释

上世纪五十年代末，人类学家武雅士夫妇在台北盆地的一个村庄进行了为期两年的田野调查，收集了大量田野资料，标志着欧美学界第一个聚焦汉人儿童生活世界的人类学研究。

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

My new book, “Unruly” Children: Historical Fieldnotes and Learning Morality in a Taiwan Village, is published by Cambridge University Press. It simultaneously traces children’ active learning of morality and reconstructs an ethnography from a rare and unique set of fieldnotes. cup.org/409liB2

cup.org

‘Unruly’ Children

Cambridge Core - Developmental Psychology - ‘Unruly’ Children

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

I had the opportunity to interview Barry and Bonnie Hewlett, two anthropologists who had made great contribution to the study of Hunter-gatherer childhood: www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/abs/10.3...

liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk

Interview with Bonnie and Barry Hewlett: Encountering children in the field: Hunter Gatherer Research: Vol 8, No 1-2

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Introduce our recent article about understanding contemporary Chinese society via humor, in American Anthropologist: “Can anthropologists get humor?”: doi.org/10.1111/aman... It marks the beginning of a new project: critical reflections on knowledge production through collaboration

doi.org

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Here’s our new editorial piece for “World Anthropologies” section, as Associate Editors for the journal American Anthropologist: “Seeking clarity at a time of confusion”: doi.org/10.1111/aman...

doi.org

<em>American Anthropologist</em> | AAA Anthropology Journal | Wiley Online Library

Click on the article title to read more.

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Yang Zhang @profyangzhang.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

I created a starter pack for sociologists studying China: go.bsky.app/NetJdDm. We study China’s labor, gender, family, inequality, organizations, education, professions, media, civil society, protests, immigration, as well as politics and history. Let me know if you want to be added (or removed).

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Jing Xu @jing-xu.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

My book talk at UW Taiwan Studies Program, on the official publication date of "Unruly" Children (Cambridge University Press, 2024), in front of pioneers in my field, including Profs. Hill Gates, Stevan Harrell, John Shepherd, Rob Weller, David Jordan, etc.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdI2...

youtube.com

Unruly Children with Jing Xu

YouTube video by University of Washington Taiwan Studies Program

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