scholarly journals Defining Politics in an ‘Apolitical City’: An Ethnographic study of Hong Kong

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Yue Chuen Lam-Knott

Hong Kong has been described as a city that prioritises socio-economic stability at the expense of political engagement. Despite recent protests —such as the 2003 demonstration with half a million people taking to the streets—that seemingly dispel such statements, Hong Kong youth activists claim that the city remains apolitical. How can we make sense of this paradox of seeing the protests on the streets of the city, with what is being said by these youths? In attempting to unravel this puzzle, this paper highlights the importance for anthropologists of understanding how politics is conceptualised amongst their informants, which in turn determines the peculiar manifestations of political actions in that societal context. This paper argues that in Hong Kong, there are discrepancies between youth activists and the general population in how politics is framed and situated in relation to everyday life. It is then revealed that contemporary mainstream attitudes towards politics are actually a product of the city’s colonial history. Finally, this paper will explore the sentiments (of indifference, discomfort, or frustration) youth activists and non-political individuals respectively harbour towards politics and political actors, and the obstacles dominant attitudes towards politics pose for youth activists and for anthropologists alike. 

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinzhi Zhang ◽  
Wan-Ying Lin

Do social media help individuals without organisational memberships to engage more in politics or do they only facilitate political participation for those already involved? We examine how social media use and organisational membership jointly affect participation. Comparative surveys in Hong Kong and Taipei reveal that information sharing and virtual political engagement on social media mobilised users to engage in collective political actions. The influence of social media on individual-based participation is conditional on organisational membership, as reflected by the number of organisations joined. Organisational membership moderates the relationship between social media use and political behaviours differently in Hong Kong and Taipei.


GEOgraphia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (41) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Elson Luciano Silva Pires ◽  
Lucas Labigalini Fuini ◽  
Wilson Bento Figueiredo Filho ◽  
Eugênio Lima Mendes

A palavra governança não é nova. Ela perpassa por diversos períodos da história e assume significados específicos em determinadas épocas e países. Atualmente, o conceito de governança designa todos os procedimentos institucionais das relações de poder e das formas de gestão públicas ou privadas, tanto formais como informais, que regem a ação política dos atores. O objetivo deste artigo é problematizar os fatores explicativos das teorias institucionalistas que tratam a governança territorial como uma condição necessária para estabelecer compromissos entre os atores, com vistas ao desenvolvimento econômico, social e político das metrópoles, das cidades e seus territórios locais e regionais. Enfrentar as lacunas do debate acadêmico e coadunar os conceitos da literatura internacional referente à governança territorial, em especial a de matriz francesa, com a nacional, são um dos principais contributos deste artigo. REVISITING TERRITORIAL GOVERNANCE: INSTITUTIONAL DEVICES, INTERMEDIATE NOTIONS AND REGULATORY LEVELS Abstract The word governance is not new. It goes through different periods of history and takes specific meanings in certain times and countries. Currently, the concept of governance can be defined as institutional procedures of power relations and of public or private forms of management, which can be formal as well as informal, that govern political actions of political actors. The purpose of this article is to analyze the explanatory factors of institutionalist theories that approach territorial governance as a necessary condition to establish compromises among actors, seeking an economic, social, and political development of metropolis, cities, and their regional and local territories. One of the main contribution of this paper is to address the gaps in academic debate, and to relate national Brazilian concepts to international literature concerning territorial governance, in particular the French theoretical framework. Keywords: Institutional forms; territorial governance; modes of regulation. LA GOUVERNANCE TERRITORIALE REVISEE: DISPOSITIFS INSTITUTIONNELS, NOTIONS INTERMÉDIAIRES ET NIVEAUX DE RÉGULATION Resumé Le mot gouvernance n'est pas nouveau. Il traverse diverses périodes de l'histoire et prend des significations spécifiques à certains moments et pays. Actuellement, le concept de gouvernance désigne toutes les procédures institutionnelles de relations de pouvoir et de formes de gestion publiques ou privées, formelles ou informelles, qui régissent l'action politique des acteurs. L'objectif de cet article est de problématiser les facteurs explicatifs des théories institutionnalistes qui traitent la gouvernance territoriale comme une condition nécessaire pour établir des compromis entre les acteurs, en vue du développement économique, social et politique de la métropole, des villes et de leurs territoires locaux et régionaux. Faire face aux lacunes du débat académique en accord avec les concepts de la littérature internationale sur la gouvernance territoriale, notamment la matrice française, avec la matrice nationale, sont l'une des contributions majeures de cet article. Mots-clés: Formes institutionnelles; gouvernance territoriale; modes de régulations


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Zhuoyi Wen ◽  
Ka Ho Mok ◽  
Padmore Adusei Amoah

Abstract The population aged 65 years and above in Hong Kong is projected to rise from 15 per cent in 2014 to 38.4 per cent in 2069. Therefore, the quest for creating age-friendly conditions and the promotion of active ageing has become a priority for the Hong Kong Government and stakeholders in the city. Using a cross-national comparative framework for productive engagement in later life, this article examines the predictors of productive engagement (perceived voluntary engagement) in two districts (the Islands and Tsuen Wan) of Hong Kong – a typical productivist welfare regime in Asia. Data were collected through a social survey to ascertain the perception of an age-friendly city and active ageing in 2016 and 2018 from 1,638 persons aged 60 years and older. The results indicate some differences in the perception of the key determinants in both districts, but the factors associated with productive engagement were consistent, namely social atmosphere, social provisions and the built environment. The findings are discussed within the broader discourse on social gerontology, age-friendly cities and productivist welfare regimes.


1970 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Fitzgerald ◽  
Terry Threadgold

When The Age renamed the corner of Russell and Bourke streets the ‘Golden Elbow’ it brought the city into close proximity with an altogether different city. Neither Chang Mai, Hong Kong nor Melbourne, the Golden Elbow was defined by what it could be. Neither one thing (Melbourne) nor another (somewhere else), the Golden Elbow is a space of the city-becoming-other. Through narrative work and news media maps of no-go zones, machines mobilise fear and thus value, from the desire flowing through this abject zone. Capitalism sucks value from these encounters through the production of fear as affect. The city-becoming-other is both enormously productive, and destructive of bodies caught up in the mix. This article explores the flow of desire and the abject of a city becoming other through a street drug marketplace.  The encounter with the abject brings use closer to the beauty and fear of ontological mixity.


Author(s):  
Anders Olof Larsson

While research has gauged the degree to which political actors focus on their personal rather than their more public sides in their communication efforts, few studies have assessed the extent to which personalized content succeeds in gaining traction among online followers. The current study does just that, focusing on the Instagram accounts operated by Norwegian parties and party leaders. Results indicate that party leaders emerge as more successful than parties in gaining attention through ‘likes’ and comments and that they offer personalized content to higher degrees than the parties they represent. While personalized content might lead to increased political engagement among citizens, the fact that personalization ‘works’ in terms of gaining attention might also skew political PR and marketing towards excessive use of such themes.


Author(s):  
Khee Giap Tan ◽  
Nguyen Trieu Duong Luu ◽  
Le Phuong Anh Nguyen

Purpose Cost of living is an important consideration for the decision-making of expatriates and investment decisions of businesses. As competition between cities for talent and capital becomes global instead of national, the need for timely and internationally comparable information on global cities’ cost of living increases. While commercial research houses frequently publish cost of living surveys, these reports can be lacking in terms of scientific rigour. In this context, this paper aims to contribute to the literature by formulating a comprehensive and rigorous methodology to compare the cost of living for expatriates in 103 world’s major cities. Design/methodology/approach A cost of living index for expatriates composed of the ten consumption categories is constructed. The results from the study covers a study period from 2005 to 2014 in 103 cities. More than 280 individual prices of 165 goods and services have been compiled for each city in the calculation of the cost of living index for expatriates. New York has been chosen as the base city for the study, with other cities being benchmarked against it. A larger cost of living index for expatriates implies that the city is more expensive for expatriates to live in and vice versa. Findings While the authors generate the cost of living rankings for expatriates for 103 cities worldwide, in this paper, the authors focus on five key cities, namely, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Zurich, as they are global financial centres. In 2013, the latest year for which data are available, Zurich was the most expensive for expatriates among the five cities, followed by Singapore, Tokyo, London and Hong Kong. These results pertain to the cost of living for expatriates, and cities compare very differently in terms of cost of living for ordinary residents, as ordinary residents follow different consumption patterns from expatriates. Originality/value Cost of living in the destination city is a major consideration for professionals who look to relocate, and organisations factor such calculations in their decisions to post employees overseas and design commensurate compensation packages. This paper develops a comprehensive and rigorous methodology for measuring and comparing cost of living for expatriates around the world. The value-addition lies in the fact that the authors are able to differentiate between expatriates and ordinary residents, which has not been done in the existing literature. They use higher quality data and generate an index that is not sensitive to the choice of base city.


English Today ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-64
Author(s):  
Bertus van Rooy

ABSTRACTA report on the Fourteenth Annual Conference of the International Association for World Englishes was held from 1–5 December 2008 at the City University of Hong Kong. The Conference Theme was ‘World Englishes and World's Languages: Convergence, Enrichment or Death?’ On the first two days, three pre-conference workshops and an open forum discussion were held, addressing theory and methodology in the world Englishes classroom, creativity in world Englishes and the implications of language variation for classroom teaching. This was followed by three packed days of presentations, including a keynote, plenary and presidential address, four focus lectures, and eight streams of parallel paper presentations or special panels/thematic sessions. In total, more than 150 presentations were made, and the conference was attended by well over 200 delegates.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Edmund W. Cheng

Abstract This paper surveys the process of discursive contestation by intellectual agents in Hong Kong that fostered a counter-public sphere in China's offshore. In the post-war era, Chinese exiled intellectuals leveraged the colony's geopolitical ambiguity and created a displaced community of loyalists/dissenters that supported independent publishing venues and engaged in the cultural front. By the 1970s, homegrown and left-wing intellectuals had constructed a hybrid identity to articulate their physical proximity to, yet social distance from, the Chinese nation-state, as well as to appropriate their sense of belonging to the city-state, through confronting social injustice. In examining periodicals and interviewing public intellectuals, I propose that this counter-public sphere was defined first by its alternative voice, which contested various official discourses, second by its multifaceted inclusiveness, which accommodated diverse worldviews and subjectivities, and third by its critical platform, which nurtured social activism in undemocratic Chinese societies. I differentiate the permissive conditions that loosened constraints on intellectual agencies from the productive conditions that account for their penetration and diffusion. Habermas's idealized public sphere framework is revisited by bringing in ideational contestation, social configuration and cultural identity.


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