The Escalator: A Conveyor of Hong Kong's Culture

People believe that escalators provide a moreattractive, convenient, and physically less-demandingpedestrian access from one place to another. However, itdoes not mean all of us have to like them. Escalators do not only affect our perception of speed, butthe most important concern is that this urban objectalso influences our social relationships and humancommunication. Under the transmission of this urban object, we are treated as components (a what),rather than human beings (a who). Thus, this articlediscusses how modernist thinking affects how we see thisobject and ourselves, and examines the relative worth of it, in relation to the social lossincurred in the present or future. This article alsodiscusses how its presence in many of the daily settingsof urban life affects the culture, meaning and quality of life.Requests for reprints should be addressed SIU Kin Wai Michael, School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hunghom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.     

香港新城规划建设对天津的启示

香港作为国际化大都市,人口众多,土地资源十分紧张。为了应对人口迅速增长对香港本岛和九龙市区带来的各种压力,香港从20世纪70年代就开始规划建设新市镇,也就是新城。新城在香港规划史上占有重要的位置,在香港整体发展中也扮演了积极的角色,很多方面值得我们借鉴。     

香港引导青少年健康上网举措析评

网络可以帮助青少年增广见闻、培育心智,但如果被鼠标控制,青少年也可能成为网络低俗文化的最大受害者。因此,在青少年分辨是非能力未成熟的情况下,引导他们健康上网,学会控制鼠标,做网络的主人,对青少年的身心健康成长极为重要。本文以为可进行优秀网站选举,实行优秀网站学生大使计划,推行互联网内容标签制度,成立沉溺上网支援中心,都是近年来香港引导青少年健康上网的主要举措。     

Global Civil Society: Royal Road or Slippery Path?

Global civil society has become an important paradigm for progressive social change at a planetary level. It posits a bold new ethical project for global democratization. For its critics, though, it is just the social wing of neoliberal globalization diverting social movements from their tasks. It is also seen as irredeemably Eurocentric in its assumptions and orientation. A third option, proposed here, is to understand global civil society as a complex social and spatial terrain. By bringing politics back in, a progressive option can be presented to contest the dominant co-optive or reformist conception of global civil society.     

A legal realist view on citizen actions in Hong Kong's umbrella movement

This article considers the legal validity of citizens' actions in civil disobedience as it pertains to the umbrella movement in Hong Kong. It introduces the critical approach of “legal realism” in order to reconsider normative law, such as police enforcement and court interventions, in relation to political struggle. It has been argued that the legal precepts of rights, responsibility, and the rule of law are capable of contingent and contextually appropriate interpretations by different legal actors, including citizens who participate in civil disobedience. In politics, justice, and most importantly law, civil disobedience offers an alternative legal normativity to consider the citizen's right, and even duty, to express dissent. Furthermore, this right or duty is legally persuasive and conducive to guarding democratic principles.     

内地在港青年对香港廉政体系适应现状

由于内地与香港在政治、文化等方面存在一些差异,导致内地人士在融入香港社会的过程中出现一些不适应性,对香港廉政体系的不适应就是其中一个重要表现。对927名内地在港青年问卷发现,大多数内地在港青年认识到内地与香港廉政体系存在差异,总体上比较适应香港廉政体系,对腐败行为违法情况的判断与香港市民存在差异。但也有内地在港青年不了解廉政公署的举报途径、对腐败行为的容忍度较高、对腐败行为的举报意愿不强烈等。内地在港青年尽快适应香港廉政体系非常重要,需香港政府、内地在港青年、内地政府三个主体形成推进合力。     

香港“青年危机”:表征、影响及策略

在全球青年运动此起彼伏的背景下,以青年或青年学生为主体的违法"占中"等事件给香港社会各界敲响了警钟:香港青年出了问题。种种现实和数据统计表明,香港青年也确实面临着一系列有形无形危机,主要表现为:持续递减的人口危机、前景不明的职业危机、难以脱贫的贫困危机、日趋延迟的过渡危机和迷惘模糊的认同危机等。这些问题给陆港关系的深化融合、香港社会的和谐稳定以及青年个体的信心提振都带来极大隐忧和冲击。鉴于此,建议政府尽快出台青年发展战略、加大青年帮扶力度、广开青年民主言路和畅通青年晋升通道,以期消解青年危机,促进青年长远发展。     

The Role of the Nonprofit Sector in Hong Kong's Development

The recent handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China (PRC) brought Hong Kong worldwide attention and scrutiny. In the run up to the handover, the international media prominently featured stories about Hong Kong's freewheeling capitalism and the stability created by its administrative institutions. Lost in the media attention was the role of nonprofit organizations and the voluntary sector in Hong Kong's political and economic development. Although Hong Kong has a vibrant civil society, it has received little attention from scholars. This paper reviews the role of the third sector in Hong Kong's development. Among the issues the paper addresses are the legal codes that govern the creation and operation of nonprofit organizations in Hong Kong, the evidence regarding the role of the nonprofit sector in Hong Kong's development, particularly its relationship to the government and market sectors, and the implications of the 1997 transition for the nonprofit sector's role.     

City Spaces and Human Relations in Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway: From Circulation to Everyday Life

Subways have experienced a tremendous variety of development, securing their positions within cities and producing unique spaces whose characteristics have influenced human relations. This study focuses on the relationships between subways and the cities, spaces, and human relationships that surround them. It explores the connections between subways and the aforementioned elements (city, space, and human relations) to provide insight into how best to pursue improvements. The Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway's fame as a representational subway on a global scale makes it the ideal choice for a case study.     

An integrated and experience-based approach to social work education: The Newcastle model

This paper describes a unique social work education model developed by a group of social work practitioners, all but one of whom were new to academia. The University of Newcastle, in New South Wales, pioneered problem-based learning (PBL) in Australia. The social work programme adopted PBL and gave it a strengths focus, making experience and experiential learning central to its approach. Newcastle's model is based on the belief that learning to be good social workers is best achieved through learning by doing, working with students' experiences, integrating theory and practice, using a collaborative or small group approach, and locating these elements in a strong social justice context. The Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree is relatively new. Introduced in 1991, its first graduates entered the workforce in 1995. The Newcastle model provides a unique example of experience-based learning and an integrated approach to social work education.     

Understanding the donor experience: Applying stewardship theory to higher education donors

This study sought to discover how stewardship strategies and involvement impact organization-public relationship (OPR) outcomes for higher education donors at three different levels of giving. The first study to compare annual donors, major gift donors with one endowment, and major gift donors with two or more endowments suggests that each donor type experiences stewardship and OPR differently. Specifically, as donors deepen their giving relationship with an institution, they experience stewardship and OPR outcomes more positively. Additionally, involvement only slightly contributes to this relationship between stewardship and OPR outcomes. Findings also reveal that stewardship may include only three strategies, including a new concept called respect. Implications for fundraising practice and theory are made.     

When assumptions on fieldwork education fail to hold: The experience of Botswana

In most parts of the world, social work fieldwork education takes for granted that the different stakeholders in the fieldwork learning process - students, academic staff, and field instructors - are dedicated to their task and can carry it through, yet this assumption does not always hold. This article examines one such situation, in Botswana, and several measures that have been introduced to tackle it.     

Documenting Discrimination: A Study of Recruitment Cases Brought to the Norwegian Gender Equality Ombud

This article investigates appointment cases brought to the Gender Equality Ombud over a ten-year period (1985–94). The study presented here aims to explore gender discrimination in recruitment and why it is so hard to document. An advantage of studying appointment cases brought to the Ombud is that the three parties — the plaintiff, the hiring authority and the Ombud — are all engaged in presenting arguments directly concerning gender discrimination. The two key questions are: how do hiring authorities argue to counter assertions of discrimination? And on what grounds are arguments accepted/not accepted by the Ombud? The cases investigated are divided into three categories: cases from male-dominated organizations, woman-dominated organizations and gender-balanced organizations. How the gender of the candidates has influenced the hiring process can only be read indirectly from most cases; hiring authorities usually argue that it is the concern for personal suitability that has been the decisive factor. In the analysis of the cases three main types of justifications of hiring preferences are identified: ‘continuity’, ‘renewal’ and ‘the woman is unfit’. The decision situation of the Ombud is uncertain in most cases. In many cases the juridical expertise of hiring authorities seems to be decisive. The demarcation line is unclear concerning which arguments should be accepted as impartial and which should be rejected because of vagueness or subjectivity.     

A journey of embedding mental health lived experience in social work education

Abstract

The value of learning from mental health lived experience is widely acknowledged, however, the nature of lived experience involvement in Australian social work education seldom extends beyond guest lecturing. Further, few opportunities exist that build the capacity of people with lived experience to become educators within tertiary settings. In this paper we present the Valuing Lived Experience Project (VLEP), an initiative led by a Lived Experience Academic (LEA) that seeks to systematically and meaningfully embed lived experience into the social work curriculum at a Western Australian university by providing significant opportunities for the capacity building of both individuals with mental health lived experience and academics. Given the relative infancy of service user involvement in Australian social work education, the VLEP offers a number of opportunities for reflection and consideration. A long-standing partnership between a LEA and Social Work Academic is described, the activities and key learnings of the VLEP to date are outlined, and we offer our reflections on challenges encountered throughout the journey. We hope that our experiences and learnings can be drawn upon to progress lived experience participation in tertiary settings and further legitimise lived experience involvement in the education of social workers.     

Hong Kong: From Worker to Manager

Review article on: Made by Hong Kong. Edited by Suzanne Berger and Richard K. Lester The Hong Kong Advantage. By Michael T. enright, Edit E. Scott and David Dodwell