Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong

Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong
Author: Alice Poon
Publisher: Enrich Professional Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Elite (Social sciences)
ISBN: 9789814339100

This book reveals an insider's view on how Hong Kong's land system, inherited from the British, has helped to create unrivalled wealth for the ruling class, how the lack of competition law has encouraged industrial and economic concentration in the same entities, and how these factors have given rise to a host of social and economic ills. The Chinese version has become the bestseller of non-fiction titles in Hong Kong in 2010.

Hong Kong Public Housing

Hong Kong Public Housing
Author: Miles Glendinning
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 623
Release: 2024-11-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317191242

Hong Kong Public Housing provides the first comprehensive history of one of the most dramatic episodes in the global history of the modern built environment: the vast public housing programme sponsored by successive Hong Kong governments from the 1950s, in a quest to build up the territory into a lasting ‘people’s home’. And unlike many of its counterparts elsewhere, this is a programme still ongoing today – a case of ‘history in progress’ – as Hong Kong now boasts one of the world’s longest-lasting public housing programmes. During that time, it has been not just a mirror of the cultural and economic values of Hong Kong society but also a reflection of more nebulous, fast-changing perceptions of identity – and a testament to the community-building achievements of Hongkongers over these years. This authoritative study combines architectural history with the broader social, political, and cultural aspects of housing production – particularly the geo-political issues of sovereignty and decolonisation that uniquely, and fundamentally, structured the trajectory of Hong Kong public housing and territory development. Exploring the relationship between built form, ideology, and administrative governance, it shows how massive state intervention interacted at times uneasily with Hong Kong’s dominant laissez-faire ethos, to help maintain the legitimacy of successive administrations during an era of ‘auto-decolonisation’, and support an interstitial society suspended between two sovereignties. Following more recent political changes, Hong Kong’s public housing heritage has also become a focus of nostalgic community pride – a monumental achievement of ‘home building’ which this book documents and celebrates for posterity.

Hong Kong Society

Hong Kong Society
Author: Stephen WK Chiu
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2022-02-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9811657076

This book borrows the concept of “high-definition” from digital broadcasting to highlight our unique approach to Hong Kong society, which gives a sharper image than analyses. It intends to highlight contrasts with many common and taken-for-granted stories, myths and representations of Hong Kong— which often presented with a low level of detail, lacking proper connections between grounded personal experiences and the macro social context. With chapters covering various salient dimensions of Hong Kong’s society, including migration, economy, inequality, identity and social movements, our “high-definition” approach presents images with high enough “resolution” to match multiple layers of experiences from walks of life of Hong Kong people, contributing to an understanding of how global transformation impacts local people’s experiences, as well as Hong Kong’s significance in the regional and global system.

Theological Reflections on the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement

Theological Reflections on the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement
Author: Justin K.H. Tse
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2016-07-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1349948462

This book gathers the voices of four local Hong Kong theologians to reflect on the 2014 democracy protests in the city from the perspectives of Catholic social teaching, feminist and queer intersectionality, Protestant liberation, and textual exegesis. The volume also includes an extended primer on Hong Kong politics to aid readers as they reflect on the theology underlying the democracy protests. September 28, 2014 is known as the day that political consciousness in Hong Kong began to shift. As police fired eighty-seven volleys of tear gas at protesters demanding “genuine universal suffrage” in Hong Kong, the movement (termed the “Umbrella Movement”) ignited a polarizing set of debates over civil disobedience, government collusion with private interests, and democracy. The Umbrella Movement was also a theological watershed moment, a time for religious reflection. This book analyzes the role that religion played in shaping the course of this historic movement.

Connections

Connections
Author: Jean Hillier
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 716
Release: 2017-05-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317161971

The professional practice as well as the academic discipline of planning has been fundamentally re-invented all over the world in recent decades. In this astonishing transition, the thinking and scholarship of Patsy Healey appears as a constantly recurring influence and inspiration around the globe. The purpose of this book is to present, discuss and celebrate Healey’s seminal contributions to the development of the theory and practice of spatial planning. The volume contains a selection of 13 less readily available, but nevertheless, key texts by Healey, which have been selected to represent the trajectory of Patsy’s work across the several decades of her research career. 12 original chapters by a wide range of invited contributors take the ideas in the reprinted papers as points of departure for their own work, tracing out their continuing relevance for contemporary and future directions in planning scholarship. In doing so, these chapters tease out the themes and interests in Healey’s work which are still highly relevant to the planning project. The title - Connections - symbolises relationality, possibly the most outstanding element linking Patsy’s ideas. The book showcases the wide international influence of Patsy’s work and celebrates the whole trajectory of work to show how many of her ideas on for instance the role of theory in planning, processes of change, networking as a mode of governance, how ideas spread, and ways of thinking planning democratically were ahead of their time and are still of importance.

Hong Kong Architecture 1945-2015

Hong Kong Architecture 1945-2015
Author: Charlie Q. L. Xue
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2016-06-13
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9811010048

This book focuses on the transformation from colonial to global – the formation, mechanism, events, works and people related to urban architecture. The book reveals hardships the city encountered in the 1950s and the glamour enjoyed in the 1980s. It depicts the public and private developments, and especially the public housing which has sheltered millions of residents. The author identifies the architects practising in the formative years and the representatives of a rising generation after the 1980s. Suffering from land shortage and a dense environment, the urban development of Hong Kong has in the past 70 years met the changing demands of fluctuating economic activities and a rising population. Architecture on the island has been shaped by social demands, the economy and technology. The buildings have been forged by the government, clients, planners, architects, many contractors and end-users. The built environment nurtures our life and is visual evidence of the way the city has developed. Hong Kong is a key to East Asia in the Pacific Era. The book is a must-read for a thorough understanding the contemporary history and architecture of this oriental pearl. Endorsement: “Hong Kong sets an extreme example of hyper-density living. MTR’s Kowloon Station project offered my firm the unique opportunity to contribute to a new type of fully integrated three dimensional transport mega-structure, conceived as a well-connected place for people to live, work and play. Through Charlie Xue’s book, one can see how a compact city works and high density integrated development indicates a sustainable path for modern city making.” Sir Terry Farrell, CBE, Principal, Farrells "Well researched and refreshingly well structured, Charlie Xue's latest book comprehensively shows how Hong Kong's post-war urban architecture both tracks and symbolizes the former British colony's rise to success - a must read for architecture and culture buffs alike." Peter G. Rowe, Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. “An essential addition to the growing literature on Chinese architecture, the title of the book belies the full scope of Xue’s extensive history. Covering Hong Kong’s postwar transition from defeated colony to Pacific Age power house, Xue expertly traces the evolution of the city’s ambitious and innovative programs of integrated high density urban design and infrastructure, as well as changing architectural fashions. In a time when many Western governments have all but abandoned public housing programs, Xue’s book is a timely reminder of what can be achieved.” Professor Chris Abel, author of Architecture and Identity, Architecture, technology and process and The Extended Self.“/p>

The Ruling Class

The Ruling Class
Author: Gaetano Mosca
Publisher: Andesite Press
Total Pages: 570
Release: 2017-08-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781376214598

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Planetary Gentrification Reader

The Planetary Gentrification Reader
Author: Loretta Lees
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 574
Release: 2022-12-30
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1000816265

Gentrification is a global process that the United Nations now sees as a human rights issue. This new Planetary Gentrification Reader follows on from the editors’ 2010 volume, The Gentrification Reader, and provides a more longitudinal (backward and forward in time) and broader (turning away from Anglo-/Euro-American hegemony) sense of developments in gentrification studies over time and space, drawing on key readings that reflect the development of cutting-edge debates. Revisiting new debates over the histories of gentrification, thinking through comparative urbanism on gentrification, considering new waves and types of gentrification, and giving much more focus to resistance to gentrification, this is a stellar collection of writings on this critical issue. Like in their 2010 Reader, the editors, who are internationally renowned experts in the field, include insightful commentary and suggested further reading. The book is essential reading for students and researchers in urban studies, urban planning, human geography, sociology, and housing studies and for those seeking to fight this socially unjust process.

Housing Booms in Gateway Cities

Housing Booms in Gateway Cities
Author: David Ley
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2023-06-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1119853621

HOUSING BOOMS IN GATEWAY CITIES “David Ley examines the development of housing booms, and policies intended to stimulate or limit them. Utilising a comparative approach in five gateway cities, he provides a superb understanding of the politics of booms, lifting the debate beyond narrow housing and real estate studies. This book is required reading for anyone interested in global cities, housing markets, or comparative urbanism.” —Manuel B. Aalbers, Professor of Human Geography, KU Leuven, Belgium “A stellar contribution to housing and its financialisation as central to the capitalist project globally, Housing Booms offers a wonderful window into the ascendancy of the secondary circuit of real estate in Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Vancouver, and London. Critically, through careful, empirically rigorous comparison, an eminent urban social scientist urges us to understand the importance of placing urban housing theoretically.” —Loretta Lees, Director of the Initiative on Cities, Boston University “Mastering a wealth of information and insights from five gateway cities, David Ley provides fresh and inspiring explanation of both common global logics and diverse local trajectories of housing booms in the era of financialisation and asset-based accumulation. A timely and ground-breaking contribution, (re)positioning housing to the centrality pervasively felt in everyday life but largely unacknowledged in mainstream social science.” —George Lin, Chair Professor of Geography, University of Hong Kong In Housing Booms in Gateway Cities, renowned geographer Dr. David Ley delivers a detailed exploration of housing markets in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Vancouver, and London and explains why these gateway cities have seen dramatic increases in residential real estate prices since the 1980s. The author describes how the globalization of real estate has rapidly inflated demand and uncoupled local housing prices from local wages, causing acute problems of affordability, availability, and inequality. The book implicates government policy in massive real estate price inflation, describing a shift from welfare-based to asset-based societies. It also highlights the relatively unique experience in Singapore, where asset-based housing policy has encouraged the dispersion of ownership and accumulation through an increased supply of subsidized leasehold apartments and the regulation of disruptive investment flows. Housing Booms in Gateway Cities is an ideal resource for academics, students and policymakers with an interest in urban geography, sociology, and planning, housing studies, and any of the cities discussed in the book. It is an innovative treatment of housing as a central category in wealth accumulation in urban economies and societies.

Technovisuality

Technovisuality
Author: Helen Grace
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2015-12-23
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0857739190

How should we regard the contemporary proliferation of images? Today, visual information is available as projected, printed and on-screen imagery, in the forms of video games, scientific data, virtual environments and architectural renderings. Fearful and anti-visualist responses to this phenomenon abound. Spread by digital technologies, images are thought to threaten the word and privilege surface value over content. Yet as they multiply, images face unprecedented competition for attention. This book explores the opportunities that can arise from the ubiquity of visual stimuli. It reveals that 'technovisuality' - the fusion of digital technology with the visual - can work 'wonders'; not so much dazzling audiences with special effects as reviving our enchantment with popular culture. Introducing a new term for an entirely new field of academic study, this book reveals the centrality of 'technovisuality' in 21st century life.