Staff profile

My research has focused mainly on the social origins and meanings of loneliness and its consequences. Loneliness has been studied from the perspectives of psychiatry, psychology, philosophy, and gerontology. I have studied it as a social problem by examining the effects of social relations and social contexts (class, ethnicity, immigration, national culture, etc.). Ultimately, I see loneliness as a problem that is emblemic of the relationship between the individual and the society at large. Even more generally, I believe that the mission for all social scientists is to tackle genuine social problems, if it is unrealistic to talk about 'solving' them. I have also done some research on private business owners in the context of China's economic development in the earlier years of my career, and I am still doing research on issues related to China through supervising and supporting my PhD students. To me, studying their economic and political life is a key to understanding many seemingly paradoxical issues in contemporary China. Methodologically, I am open to all methodological approaches and capable to use a variety of technical methods. I use statistical methods regularly for analysing large-scale sample survey data, but I have also used case studies and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). In every study my aspiration is to integrate theory, substantive knowledge, and technical skills with logical rigour.

Currently I teach Sociology of Mental Health and Illness for senior undergraduate students and Intermediate Statistics for psotgraduate students in the MA in Research Methods programme. 

I welcome any inquiries about potential study for a PhD degree with me. Any topic in the areas of sociology of mental health and illness, economic sociology, political sociology, social gerontology, or any topic related to China or comparative cross-national studies will be considered.

• Sociology of mental wellbeing
• Economic sociology and entrepreneurship
• China
• Statistical methods in social research
• Social gerontology

• Health and Social Theory

• The Political Participation of Private Business Owners in China

Available for media contact about:

• Entrepreneurship / SME: China's economic, political and social development, entrepreneurship, research design, quantitative methods, loneliness among older people in comparative perspectives

Authored book

• Yang, Keming (2019). Loneliness: A Social Problem. Routledge.
• Yang, Keming (2012). Capitalists in Communist China. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Yang, Keming. (2010). Making Sense of Statistics for Social Research. Sage.
• Yang, Keming. (2007). Entrepreneurship in China. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Chapter in book

• Yang, Keming (2013). Keep Business for Business: Associations of private enterprises in China. In Chinese corporatist state: adaption, survival and resistance. Hsu, Jennifer & Hasmath, Reza London: Routledge. 66-82.
• Yang, Keming (2013). ‘Auf welcher Seite stehst du? Chinas kommunistischer Staat zwischen KapitalistInnen und ArbeiterInnen’ (‘Whose Side Are You on? China’s Communist state between the capitalists and the workers’). In Arbeitskämpfe in China: Berichte von der Werkbank der Welt. Georg Egger, Daniel Fuchs, Thomas Immervoll & Lydia Steinmassl Promedia. 194-209.
• Yang, Keming (2010). 从财富到权力？对私营企业主参政的观察与思考 (From Wealth to Power? Some Observations and Thoughts on the Political Participation of Private Entrepreneurs). In 当代中国政治报告 (Research Reports on The Politics of Contemporary China). Beijing: Social Science Academic Press (Beijing, China). 8: 92-105.
• Yang, Keming (2007). ‘Causal Analysis’ (pp.123-125), ‘Logistic Regression Analysis’ (pp.550-555), and ‘Loglinear Analysis’ (pp.555-558). In Encyclopedia of Measurement and Statistics. Salkind, Neil Sage Publications, Ltd.

Edited book

• Yang, Keming (2014). Categorical Data Analysis. Sage Benchmarks in Social Research Methods. Sage Publications, Ltd.

Journal Article

• Zheng, Yixuan Panayiotou, Margarita Currie, Dorothy Yang, Keming Bagnall, Charlotte Qualter, Pamela & Inchley, Joanna (2022). The Role of School Connectedness and Friend Contact in Adolescent Loneliness, and Implications for Physical Health. Child Psychiatry & Human Development
• Verity, Lily, Yang, Keming, Nowland, Rebecca, Shankar, Aparna, Turnbull, Michelle & Qualter, Pamela (2022). Loneliness from the Adolescent Perspective: A Qualitative Analysis of Conversations about Loneliness between Adolescents and Childline Counsellors. Journal of Adolescent Research
• Yang, K., Peterson, K.J. & Qualter, P. (2022). Undesirable social relations as risk factors for loneliness among 14-year-olds in the UK: Findings from the Millennium Cohort Study. International Journal of Behavioral Development 46(1): 3-9.
• Yang, Keming,, Armstrong, Nicole,, Diamond, Clare,, Lane, Alison R, & Dunne, Stephen (2022). The meaning of loneliness to stroke survivors: A qualitative study in Northeast England. Journal of Health Psychology 27(11): 2539-2548.
• Noone, Catrin & Yang, Keming (2021). Community‐based responses to loneliness in older people: A systematic review of qualitative studies. Health and Social Care in the Community
• Qualter, Pamela, Hennessey, Alexandra, Yang, Keming, Chester, Kayleigh L., Klemera, Ellen & Brooks, Fiona (2021). Prevalence and Social Inequality in Youth Loneliness in the UK. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(19): 10420.
• McKenna-Plumley, Phoebe E., Groarke, Jenny M., Turner, Rhiannon N. & Yang, Keming (2020). Experiences of loneliness: a study protocol for a systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative literature. Systematic Reviews 9(1): 284.
• Meersohn Schmidt, Cynthia & Yang, Keming (2020). Controlling active ageing: a study of social imaginaries of older people in Chile. Ageing & Society 40(7): 1428-1454.
• Soo Shi Hui Joy, Tan Soo Yin & Yang, Keming (2019). Types of Social Support Associated with Depression in the UK Adult Population. Environment and Social Psychology 4(2): 1-8.
• Yang, K. (2018). Longitudinal Loneliness and Its Risk Factors among Older People in England. Canadian Journal on Aging 37(1).
• Yang, K. (2018). Causal conditions for loneliness: a set-theoretic analysis on an adult sample in the UK. Quality & Quantity 52(2): 685-701.
• Lin, L. & Yang, K. (2017). The Price of Informality: How Informal Finance Schemes Defaulted in China, 1989–2015. China: An International Journal 15(4): 111-135
• Yang, Keming & Banamah, Ahmad (2014). Quota Sampling as an Alternative to Probability Sampling? An Experimental Study. Sociological Research Online 19(1): 29.
• Yang, Keming (2014). Economic Growth and Quality of Life: What can the Europeans and the Chinese learn from each other? European Journal of Sinology (special issue): 465-482.
• Victor, Christina & Yang, Keming (2012). The Prevalence of Loneliness Among Adults: A Case Study of the United Kingdom. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied 146(1-2): 85-104.
• Yang, K. (2012). The Dependency of Private Entrepreneurs on the Chinese State. Strategic Change 21(3-4): 107-117.
• Keming Yang & Christina Victor (2011). Age and Loneliness in 25 European Nations. Ageing and Society 31(8): 1368-1388.
• Yang, Keming. & Yi, Lui. (2009). Risk Factors and Family Supports for Limitations in ADL among Older People in Urban China. Hallym International Journal of Ageing: Gerontological Research, Policies and Programs in the New Millennium 11(1): 13-32.
• David Byrne & Keming Yang (2008). ‘Conceptual and Statistical Problems in Exploring the Relationship among Volume, Outcome and Context in Relation to the Organization of Secondary and Tertiary Health Provision – an issue of causal inference in non-experimental research. Radical Statistics 96: 87-98.
• Yang, Keming. & Victor, Christine. (2008). The Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Loneliness among Older People in China. Ageing and Society 28(3): 305-327.
• Yang, Keming. (2007). Individual Social Capital and Its Measurement in Social Surveys. Survey Research Methods 1(1): 19-27.
• Yang, Keming. (2004). Institutional Holes and Entrepreneurship in China. The Sociological Review 52(3): 371-389.
• Yang, Keming (2002). Double Entrepreneurship in China's Economic Reform: An Analytical Framework. Journal of Political and Military Sociology 30(1): 134-147.

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Yang, Keming (2014). Loneliness has serious health risks and the solution is social. The Conversation