Civic Engagement, Spatial Planning and Democracy as a Way of Life Civic Engagement and the Quality of Urban Places Enhancing Effective and Democratic Governance through Empowered Participation: Some Critical Reflections One Humble Journey towards Planning for a More Sustainable Hong Kong: A Need to Institutionalise Civic Engagement Civic Engagement and Urban Reform in Brazil Setting the Scene

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patsy Healey ◽  
David E. Booher ◽  
Jacob Torfing ◽  
Eva Sørensen ◽  
Mee Kam Ng ◽  
...  
Exchange ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 252-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Chui-Shan Chow ◽  
Joseph Tse-Hei Lee

The Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong (2014) read like a living tale of David and Goliath. Peaceful demonstrators held flimsy umbrellas to defend themselves against tear gas, pepper spray, and police batons. While many observers applauded the spontaneity of the citywide protests, little attention has been paid to the involvement of the Christian church in the prodemocracy struggle. This article draws on field observations and media reports to examine the various societal networks, resources, and mechanisms that Christian and non-Christian actors employed for grassroots mobilization. The crux of discussion is the political and theological polarization of the church, as the Umbrella protest revealed a qualitative shift in the attitude of local Catholics and Protestants toward political awakening and civic engagement. Such findings throw light on the intersection of faith and politics in Hong Kong’s continuous struggle for democratic governance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 99-99
Author(s):  
Cindy Bui ◽  
Kyungmin Kim ◽  
Qian Song ◽  
Yuri Jang

Abstract Civic engagement is an important dimension of age-friendly communities but has been understudied among Asian immigrant groups. While research has attributed greater civic engagement among immigrants to acculturation factors, the influence of acculturation may be conditioned upon Asian immigrants’ social network and place attachment to their city. We used data from the Asian American Quality of Life survey to analyze civic engagement activity (e.g., City council meeting, voting in a City election) among a diverse sample of middle-aged and older Asian immigrants in Austin, Texas (N = 994). 34.5% of the sample had participated in at least one civic engagement activity in the past 12 months. We examined how such civic engagement is associated with acculturation factors, and further examined whether one’s friend network and perception of their city moderated the association. We found that number of years lived in the U.S., familiarity with mainstream American culture, and number of friends in one’s social network were positively related to civic engagement activity. Furthermore, we found that the association between years lived in the U.S. and civic engagement was more pronounced for immigrants with larger friend networks; the association between familiarity with American culture and civic engagement was more pronounced for immigrants with more positive perceptions of the city. These findings highlight that acculturation may not operate alone in civic engagement among Asian immigrants. Rather, it may also be important to create opportunities for Asian immigrants to feel connected to their community and build meaningful friend networks to encourage civic engagement.


2005 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 567-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN GERRING ◽  
STROM C. THACKER ◽  
CAROLA MORENO

Why are some democratic governments more successful than others? What impact do various political institutions have on the quality of governance? This paper develops and tests a new theory of democratic governance. This theory, which we label centripetalism, stands in contrast to the dominant paradigm of decentralism. The centripetal theory of governance argues that democratic institutions work best when they are able to reconcile the twin goals of centralized authority and broad inclusion. At the constitutional level, our theory argues that unitary, parliamentary, and list-PR systems (as opposed to decentralized federal, presidential, and nonproportional ones) help promote both authority and inclusion, and therefore better governance outcomes. We test the theory by examining the impact of centripetalism on eight indicators of governance that range across the areas of state capacity, economic policy and performance, and human development. Results are consistent with the theory and robust to a variety of specifications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinyi Xu ◽  
Shu-Wen Tu ◽  
Chia-Chin Lin

Abstract Background The proportion of hospital deaths has declined in the past few decades, while the proportions of nursing home deaths have increased. This trend of increasing deaths in long-term care facilities underlines the importance of improving end-of-life care provisions in these settings to meet individual preferences and needs. Under these circumstances, a comprehensive understanding of end-of-life care preferences in local nursing home residents can help healthcare professionals and policymakers develop strategies to increase the advance directive completion rate and quality of care. This study aimed to explore and compare advance directive and end-of-life care preferences of nursing home residents in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Methods A structured questionnaire was developed by the research team to investigate advance directive and end-of-life care preferences in older Chinese nursing home residents. Nursing home residents with frail or pre-frail status and over the age of 64 were invited to participate in the study, and information on demographics, functional status, advance directive experiences, and end-of-life care expectations was collected through questionnaire interviews. Results A total of 325 eligible participants from 32 facilities completed the survey, including 238 older residents in Hong Kong and 87 in Taiwan. A significantly lower proportion of the Hong Kong residents had completed an advance directive compared with the Taiwanese (3 vs. 13%, p = 0.001). Among participants who did not have an advance directive, 46% of the Taiwanese participants said they would consider completing one in the future, compared with 20% of the Hong Kong participants (p < 0.001). A total of 79% of the Hong Kong participants and 80% of the Taiwanese participants responded that prolonging life in the given hypothetical dying scenario was “not important” (p = 0.76). Only 14% of participants in Hong Kong and 18% of participants in Taiwan reported prior occurrence of end-of-life care discussions with family members or health professionals (p = 0.37). Conclusions This paper adds evidence in support of improving end-of-life communication and the advance directive completion rate in nursing homes in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Further research is necessary to explore cross-cultural differences in end-of-life preferences and its applications in predicting decision-making and the quality of end-of-life care.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 245-266
Author(s):  
Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas

Luxury is an industry that defines its value through the quality of its raw materials, which fosters creativity, elevates artisanship and relies on brand heritage and local production to underpin the provenance of its products and justify its pricing strategy and, as such, can be considered as embodying many of the practices of sustainability. Yet, despite public commitments and pledges for better business, both financial and cultural factors have contributed to a lack of progress in implementing the necessary system changes implied by slow fashion, sustainable development and the circular economy. Social enterprises use business to address social and environmental issues. In Tengri’s case, founder Nancy Johnston was inspired by her experiences travelling with Mongolia’s yak herders where she was confronted with the harshness of the nomadic way of life and threats to its continuing existence. She was driven to action when she juxtaposed these conditions with the promoted glamour of the luxury fashion industry, which relies on supplies of ingredients from just such workers. This article explores how Tengri combines social and environmental awareness with luxury product development incorporating the UN SDGs into a sustainable luxury menswear brand in a virtuous cycle of ethical fashion consumption and production.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 382-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ch Jo ◽  
Jh Ahn ◽  
Yd Shon ◽  
Gc Cho

Introduction The aim of this study was to determine the effect of hand positioning on the quality of external chest compression (ECC) by novice rescuers. Methods This observational simulation study was conducted for 117 included participants. After completion of an adult cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training program for 3-h, the participants selected which of their hands would be in contact with the mannequin during ECC and performed 5 cycles of single rescuer CPR on a recording mannequin. The participants were assigned to 2 groups: the dominant hand group (DH; n=40) and the non-dominant hand group (NH; n=29). The depth and rate of ECC were analysed to compare the effectiveness of ECC between 2 groups. Results The rate of ECC was significantly faster in the DH group (mean, 117.3 ±11.4/min) than in the NH group (mean, 110.9±12.2/min) (p=0.028). However, the depth of ECC in the dominant hand group (mean, 52.4±5.9 mm) was not significantly different from that in the non-dominant hand group (mean, 50.8±6.0 mm) (p=0.287). Similarly, the portion of ECC with inadequate depth in the dominant hand group (mean, 1.8±4.3%) was not significantly different from that in the non-dominant hand group (mean, 5.3±15.6%) (p=0.252). Conclusions ECC can be performed with an acceptably higher rate of compressions when the dominant hand of the novice rescuer is placed in contact with the sternum. However, the position of the dominant hand does not affect the depth of ECC. (Hong Kong j.emerg.med. 2014;21:382-386)


2005 ◽  
Vol 71 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 259-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Keung Chan ◽  
Cheuk Chiu Andy Kwan ◽  
Tan Lei Daniel Shek

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