The myths and politics of housing in Hong Kong: The controversy over the demolition of the Hunghom Estate

This paper explores the post-handover surge of civic activism in Hong Kong by examining the controversy over the demolition of the Hunghom Estate—a government subsidized housing project that was sold to private developers during a recession in early 2004. In a departure from “business as usual,” the high-profile demolition was stopped 10 months later after a series of protests mobilized by environmental activists. This result was widely hailed as a triumph of corporate responsibility and environmental consciousness. By tracing the competing narratives over the course of the controversy, this paper attempts to elucidate this “success” story by revealing the inherent conflicts between different stakeholders, and how these narratives nevertheless share and sustain a number of long-held myths about Hong Kong's economy and housing market. It argues that these myths obscure the ongoing political choices of an interventionist administration, which maintains legitimacy by tightly controlling urban development and securing support from powerful economic actors. By connecting the various claims of the present case with historic discourses of the territory, the paper aims to shed light on the power relations embedded in the development policies that characterized Hong Kong over the colonial period, and which continues to shape the practices of housing in the present.     

The vital package living on the streets in global cities: São Paulo,Los Angeles and Tokyo

The main objective of this article is to acknowledge and examine the material culture of the homeless in the urban context of downtown areas in Sao Paulo, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Firstly, I introduce some aspects of the complex process of vital package production, which concerns the social function of design and the role of products in our late industrial society. In exploring this process of homeless material culture, I then describe the reverse sense of some of the products and materials re‐functionalized by the homeless. Then, in a brief analysis of design, wasteful culture, products, life cycle and obsolescence, I claim that homelessness and design are linked to the public spaces of metropolitan areas and global cities, as a consequence of the social‐spatial exclusionary processes due to spatio‐economic conflicts that constitute contemporary urban restructuring.     

But Is It Good for Non‐Urban Women's Health? Regionalizing Maternity Care Services in British Columbia*

La Colombie‐Britannique, comme la plupart des autres provinces ou territoires canadiens, s'est orientée au cours de la dernière décennie vers une régionalisation de ses services de santé. Il en a résulté un glissement dans la planification et la prestation de services du centre vers la périphérie et un accent plus important mis sur la prise de décision locale. Cette étude explore les effets de la régionalisation sur la planification et la prestation de soins en maternitéà l'extérieur des grands centres urbains en Colombie‐Britannique. L'article fait la lumière sur la perception qu'ont les futures mères des répercussions de la régionalisation et établit des comparaisons avec les attentes des artisans de réformes à l'endroit du processus mené par le gouvernement. British Columbia, like most other Canadian provinces and territories, has in the last decade moved towards regionalization of health care services. This process has resulted in a shift in service delivery and planning from the core to the periphery, and a greater emphasis on local control and decision making. This study explores the impact of regionalization on the planning and delivery of maternity care services outside of large metropolitan areas of B.C. The paper sheds light on how birthing women perceive the impact of regionalization and compares this information to reform makers' expectations about the government‐led process.     

Gender, Status, and Leadership

More than a trait of individuals, gender is an institutionalized system of social practices. The gender system is deeply entwined with social hierarchy and leadership because gender stereotypes contain status beliefs that associate greater status worthiness and competence with men than women. This review uses expectation states theory to describe how gender status beliefs create a network of constraining expectations and interpersonal reactions that is a major cause of the "glass ceiling." In mixed-sex or gender-relevant contexts, gender status beliefs shape men's and women's assertiveness, the attention and evaluation their performances receive, ability attributed to them on the basis of performance, the influence they achieve, and the likelihood that they emerge as leaders. Gender status beliefs also create legitimacy reactions that penalize assertive women leaders for violating the expected status order and reduce their ability to gain complaince with directives.     

Parental Housing Assistance and Parent‐Child Proximity in Italy

Many studies of intergenerational exchanges include parent‐child proximity as an exogenous explanatory variable. Proximity may itself be a consequence of intergenerational resource flows, however. We analyze patterns of economic transfers between generations and their relationship to parent‐child proximity in Italy. Parental support for a child's home purchase may influence the child's choice of location, whether to facilitate parent‐child contacts, grandchild care, or parent care. We examine the situation of married couples, focusing on housing help received and the association of that help with proximity to each spouse's parents. Using 1998 survey data and multinomial logistic regression models, we find that past housing assistance has a significant effect on current proximity to each spouse's parents, controlling for parents' survival, family composition, and other factors.     

Girls Incorporated of Alameda County at 50: a voice for girls (1958-2008)

Girls Incorporated of Alameda County is nonprofit human service organization that has delivered education, counseling, and advocacy services to girls aged 6 to 18 for 50 years. The organization began as a small, local girls club and has grown into a large multi-faceted service delivery organization attached to a national governing body. The history of Girls Incorporated of Alameda County introduces struggles in relation to external and internal factors that altered the way that the agency financed and managed and exemplifies the important role of nonprofit leadership. The organization's many accomplishments have also presented multiple challenges, particularly related to the changing roles of women in American society.     

A framework for production rescheduling in sociotechnical manufacturing environments

No plan survives contact with reality. Despite the rich research base regarding handling uncertainty in production planning and control systems, there is an intellectual gap between theory and practice with regard to handling unforeseen events generated by internal and external factors, such as unforeseen machine downtimes and changes in demand. Motivated by longitudinal observations in two industrial settings and an analysis of the relevant literature, a framework for rescheduling decision-making in the face of unforeseen production events is proposed. In practical settings, the effectiveness of decisions depends on a set of situational factors. The findings of this research can be utilised further to provide guidelines for developing effective decision support principles and systems, addressing the needs of organisational decision-makers.     

The Alternative Public Sphere in China: a Cultural Sociology of the 2008 Tainted Baby Milk Scandal

Qualitative Sociology - This article studies critical news reports about the 2008 Chinese tainted baby milk scandal, which the World Health Organization identified as one of the largest food safety...