State-Society Conflicts under Hong Kong's Hybrid Regime

Asian Survey ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 854-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian C. H. Fong
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Hybrid Regimes ◽  
Business Elites ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Intermediary Role ◽  
Hybrid Regime

Similar to its colonial predecessor, the post-colonial Hong Kong state relies on its business allies to mediate state-society relations. Nevertheless, because of the erosion of the intermediary role of business elites, the state-business alliance now struggles to accommodate the rising challenges of civil society. The case of Hong Kong offers an interesting case study to the literature on hybrid regimes.

scholarly journals Street Politics in a Hybrid Regime: The Diffusion of Political Activism in Post-colonial Hong Kong

2016 ◽  
Vol 226 ◽  
pp. 383-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund W. Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Hybrid Regimes ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Public ◽  
Street Politics ◽  
Participation Costs ◽  
Hybrid Regime ◽  
Institutional Foundations

AbstractThis paper examines the diffusion of activism in post-colonial Hong Kong through the lens of the political regime and eventful analysis. It first reveals the institutional foundations of the hybrid regime that allowed the creation of a nascent movement society. It then explains how the historic 1 July rally in 2003 and a series of critical events since 2006 have led to a shift in scale and the public staging of street politics. A time-series analysis and onsite survey further capture the dynamics that spawned the collective recognition of grievances and reduced participation costs, leading to the Umbrella Movement. While the spontaneous, voluntary and decentralized organizational structure sustained protest momentum, the regime has adopted hybrid strategies to counter-mobilize bottom-up activism. The result is widening contention between the state and civil society and within civil society, or the coexistence of regime instability and regime longevity, a trend that is increasingly common in hybrid regimes encountering mass protests.

Case study 2

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan Ferlie ◽  
Sue Dopson ◽  
Chris Bennett ◽  
Michael D. Fischer ◽  
Jean Ledger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Significant Potential ◽  
Key Stakeholders

This chapter analyses the role of think tanks in generating a distinctive mode of policy knowledge, pragmatically orientated to inform and shape issues of importance to civil society. Drawing on political science literature, we argue that think tanks exploit niche areas of expertise and influence to actively mobilize policy analyses and recommendations across diverse stakeholders. Through our exploratory mapping of think tanks, geographically concentrated within London, we characterize their influence as significantly boosting knowledge intensity across the regional ecosystem. In particular, we study the empirical case of one London-based think tank which powerfully mobilized policy knowledge through its formal and informal networks to build influential expert consensus amongst key stakeholders. We conclude that such organizations act as key knowledge producers and mobilizers, with significant potential to influence policy discourses and implementation.

scholarly journals From Black to Blue Skies: Civil Society Perceptions of Air Pollution in Shanghai

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Amanda K. Winter ◽  
Huong Le ◽  
Simon Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Ecological Civilization ◽  
Civil Society Participation ◽  
Quality Indexes

Abstract This paper explores the perception and politics of air pollution in Shanghai. We present a qualitative case study based on a literature review of relevant policies and research on civil society and air pollution, in dialogue with air quality indexes and field research data. We engage with the concept of China's authoritarian environmentalism and the political context of ecological civilization. We find that discussions about air pollution are often placed in a frame that is both locally temporal (environment) and internationally developmentalist (economy). We raise questions from an example of three applications with different presentations of air quality index measures for the same time and place. This example and frame highlight the central role and connection between technology, data and evidence, and pollution visibility in the case of the perception of air pollution. Our findings then point to two gaps in authoritarian environmentalism research, revealing a need to better understand (1) the role of technology within this governance context, and (2) the tensions created from this non-participatory approach with ecological civilization, which calls for civil society participation.

scholarly journals Between gentrification and reurbanisation: The participatory dimension of bottom-up regeneration in Gdańsk, Poland

Geografie ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Grabkowska
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Transformation Processes ◽  
Careful Investigation

Urban regeneration has become a key issue in the development of contemporary cities. The paper discusses bottom-up regeneration practices performed by inhabitants of a decaying inner-city neighbourhood under post-socialist conditions, which differ notably from the widely researched Western European context. Results of a qualitative study in Wrzeszcz Dolny, Gdańsk, have indicated the leading role of newcomers to the area in animating bottom-up regeneration efforts, which in turn translate into an activation and integration of the local community. Thus, it is argued that an in-migration into the inner city, usually interpreted as gentrification, does not necessarily generate losses for the indigenous inhabitants but can also bring a desired social change and significantly contribute to the building of inclusive civil society. The presented case study therefore signals the need for a careful investigation and precise labelling of the post-socialist inner-city transformation processes, as well as demonstrates how increasing participation might be employed as the potential antidote to ills associated with gentrification.

Cultural Activism during the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hio Tong Wong ◽  
Shih-Diing Liu
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Cultural Activism ◽  
Protest Movement ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
Aesthetic Forms

Situated in Hong Kong’s post-colonial context of political crisis, this article attempts to investigate the unfolding of cultural activism during the Umbrella Movement occurred in 2014. This 79-day occupy protest, triggered by the government’s restriction on universal suffrage, has released protesters’ creative potentials in performing their struggles through a variety of aesthetic forms and practices. Questioning the traditional way of conceiving protest movement in terms of violent confrontations with government or instrumentalism, this article addresses the performative role of cultural activism which has been largely ignored in the study of Hong Kong protest movement. Rather, we argue that the creative practices enacted during the Umbrella Movement constitute in themselves the message that contains its own politics and grammars. These practices have constructed the meaning of the movement through naming, and have created the collective joy and identity among participants in the formation of movement solidarity. This article suggests that cultural activism is the spirit and soul of the Umbrella Movement, which has opened up a temporary yet crucial political space for democratic struggle.

Co-constituting Fijian identity: the role of constitutions in Fijian national identity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Mudaliar
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Legacy ◽  
Island States ◽  
National Symbols ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter focuses on the role that constitutions play in national identity, particularly in states that are recently independent and constrained by a colonial legacy. It uses Fiji as a case study, exploring how British colonialism influenced conceptions of Fijian national identity in the constitutional texts of 1970, 1990 and 1997. The chapter explores the indigenous ethno-nationalist ideals that underpinned these constitutions, which led to the privileging of indigenous Fijian identity within the wider national identity. However, in 2013, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama introduced a new constitution which shifted away from previous ethno-nationalist underpinnings towards a more inclusive national identity through the promotion of a civic nationalist agenda. In doing so, Bainimarama’s goal of reducing ethnic conflict has seen a constitutional re-imagining of Fijian identity, which includes the introduction of new national symbols, and a new electoral system, alongside equal citizenry clauses within the Constitution. This study offers a unique insight into power and identity within post-colonial island states.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ngok Ma ◽  
Edmund W. Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Student Movements ◽  
Hybrid Regimes ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Civil Resistance ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Hybrid Regime

Analysis of the 2014 Umbrella Movement speaks to three strands of academic literature: contentious politics and space, hybrid regimes and democratization, and social movements in China and Hong Kong. Based mostly on fieldwork conducted during the occupation, this book brings together 14 experts who studied the Umbrella Movement from different theoretical perspectives with different methodologies. The studies in the book analyze the occupation as a spontaneous and emotional contentious action, which made good use of public space and creative passion. They also show how civil resistance was shaped and constrained by the hybrid regime and situate the Hong Kong movement in a broader comparative perspective in reference to past student movements in China and protests in Taiwan and Macau.

Natural Disasters Management and the Challenge of Governability in Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 627-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Efendi ◽  
Agustiyara ◽  
Husni Amriyanto Putra
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Disaster Management ◽  
Community Involvement ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Major Transformation ◽  
The Relationship

Since 1998, Indonesia has experienced a major transformation in the relationship between the rulers and the ruled. State–society relationships were previously subject-object, military-civilian, or superior-inferior. In other words, the state played a central role in all matters, while civil society ‘Muhammadiyah’ was limited to political and social activities. This tended to negatively impact community involvement in prevention and risk-reduction for natural disasters. This paper examines the role of civil society in disaster management in Indonesia. It does so in relation to the particular example of Yogyakarta, a special province where local values traditionally have more inherent authority than government-imposed law. The paper further discusses how there are important lessons for the future to be drawn from a Yogyakarta case study of how the national government has generally failed to build a private–public partnership and state–society relationship to deal with natural disasters based on local community needs.

Contemporary Mythopoiesis: the role of Herodotus in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-322
Author(s):  
Vanda Zajko
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Cultural Form ◽  
Different Cultures

Abstract This article explores Neil Gaiman’s transmedial work American Gods as an example of contemporary mythmaking. Published in novel form in 2001 and launched as a television series in 2017, American Gods provides a commentary on the connectedness between different systems of stories and on myth itself as a vital present-day cultural form. It also provides us with a model for repurposing ancient material without reproducing the traditional hierarchies associated with cultures of storytelling. Gaiman’s text is an interesting case-study from the perspective of classical reception because he sidelines the ancient Greek gods in the main body of his story, while simultaneously positioning the ancient historian Herodotus as a significant intertext. The process of evaluating different cultures often veers between analyses which focus on similarities manifested across place and time and those which espouse a form of cultural relativism, a ‘live and let live’ philosophy. Gaiman seems to be offering something else here, namely a more vital and connected model for co-existence, one which is moving towards a pluri-versal perspective that acknowledges the links between political power, knowledge, and identity.

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