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Modular integrated construction (MiC) is an innovative construction method that is widely used in practice, but high transportation cost is an obstacle to its wider implementation. This paper is motivated by the real-world need for a scientific approach for MiC transport scheduling, and addresses the practical problem of how to achieve on-time door-to-door MiC delivery in an economical manner. An innovative integer programming model is formulated with the objective of minimising the total transportation costs, including trailer rental, fuel costs, and worker salaries. A case study based on Hong Kong data validates that the developed model can be efficiently solved for problems of practical size. The results also demonstrate that the derived MiC schedule plan can reduce transportation costs by 58.7% compared with a just-in-time (JIT) strategy, thus bringing great economic benefits to off-site construction practitioners. Useful managerial implications related to on-site MiC storage areas are derived through sensitivity analysis. Overall, this paper sets the ground for the application of mathematical programming methodology to the off-site construction field. Future research may be devoted to MiC transport scheduling under uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the swift expansion of urban agglomerations has given rise to a profusion of resource and environmental challenges, intensifying the prominent conflict between the imperatives of sustainable development and economic pursuits. This paper clarifies the intricate connection and synergistic dynamics among the economy, resources, and the environment, with the aim of determining their collective influence on the sustainable trajectory of urban agglomerations. Focusing on the exemplary case of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, this paper utilizes panel data ranging from 2006 to 2020 to disentangle the spatial-temporal subtleties and obstacles hindering the harmonious development of its economy-resource-environment trinity. Firstly, it integrates the coupling coordination mechanism within the DPSR (Driving Force, Pressure, States, and Response) analytical framework to create a novel sustainable development paradigm. Secondly, it builds a comprehensive evaluation index system to measure the spatial-temporal evolution of the economic-resource-environmental matrix within Greater Bay Area. And thirdly, by employing an obstacle degree model, this paper identifies key obstacles that impede the coordinated progress of the economic-resource-environmental nexus in Greater Bay Area. Lastly, it highlights a continuous upward trajectory in the spatial-temporal evolution of Greater Bay Area, marked by decreasing variations in coupling degrees and enhanced inter-connectivity among the constituent elements. This paper not only provides insights into the complex dynamics shaping urban agglomerations, but also offers actionable intelligence to navigate the multifaceted challenges associated with sustainable development endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Holistic approaches, such as the Biopsychosocial model, have become mainstream frameworks for organizing mental health services in recent decades. However, little research has explored how frontline social workers embrace and synthesize the different dimensions within this holistic approach. This paper uses semi-structured interviews to investigate diverse conceptualizations of mental health issues among frontline social workers. Fourteen social workers from Hong Kong and twelve from Sydney were interviewed. Three prevalent positions were identified: prioritizing chemical imbalance, questioning the concept of illness, and refusing a fixed understanding of mental health issues. The analysis also reveals how these understandings influence frontline social work practice, uncovers broader socio-cultural influences through s cross-cultural lens, and highlights implications for social work education for navigating the inclusivity of holistic approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of policy and practice concerning architectural heritage conservation has been a growing subject in Hong Kong, leading to both top-down policies and bottom-up reactions in the community. In times of conflict, there is an opportunity for both the government and the public to reflect and rediscover their engagement in heritage conservation. This paper evaluates the current policies of Hong Kong's heritage conservation and the dynamic interactions among stakeholders in the decision-making processes of heritage management. Moreover, it investigates through focus groups, in-depth interviews, and case studies, the impact of the existing architectural and heritage policies, and how the latter correlates with the public's expectation of heritage conservation and management. The paper finally proposes a more collaborative and inclusive approach where the public's voice is included in decision-making from the early stages of the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sociolinguistic research on workplace mental health stigma is scarce and consequently, there are a lack of relevant conceptual models. Drawing on Goffman's notion of stigma as a 'language of relationships', and Heller's concept of 'discursive space', this paper offers a conceptual model of how stigma is produced and reinforced in workplace settings. Specifically, the model maps the complex discursive processes of mental health stigmatization through workplace discursive practices. Methods: The model is empirically grounded and draws on 23 in-depth participant interviews with professional services employees in Hong Kong. Through a meta-discursive analysis of the employees' experience in the workplace, the paper investigates how mental health stigma is produced in the workplace. Results: Conceiving the workplace as a discursive space, the model demonstrates that mental health stigma unfolds across three discursive layers, namely immediate encounters, organizational practices, and societal ideologies. Mediated by discursive practices, such as identity management, stigma is both produced and perpetuated across the three layers. Conclusions: The paper provides a model for analyzing the production of mental health stigma through dynamic discursive activities in the workplace. By doing so, it offers a way to systematically map how stigma, brought about through discourse in organizational settings, can regulate both interpersonal relationships and resource allocation (such as career prospects). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sociolinguistic research on workplace mental health stigma is scarce and consequently, there are a lack of relevant conceptual models. Drawing on Goffman's notion of stigma as a 'language of relationships', and Heller's concept of 'discursive space', this paper offers a conceptual model of how stigma is produced and reinforced in workplace settings. Specifically, the model maps the complex discursive processes of mental health stigmatization through workplace discursive practices. Methods: The model is empirically grounded and draws on 23 in-depth participant interviews with professional services employees in Hong Kong. Through a meta-discursive analysis of the employees' experience in the workplace, the paper investigates how mental health stigma is produced in the workplace. Results: Conceiving the workplace as a discursive space, the model demonstrates that mental health stigma unfolds across three discursive layers, namely immediate encounters, organizational practices, and societal ideologies. Mediated by discursive practices, such as identity management, stigma is both produced and perpetuated across the three layers. Conclusions: The paper provides a model for analyzing the production of mental health stigma through dynamic discursive activities in the workplace. By doing so, it offers a way to systematically map how stigma, brought about through discourse in organizational settings, can regulate both interpersonal relationships and resource allocation (such as career prospects). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did Chinese leaders Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang feel about Hong Kong? The existing literature has tended to see the Sino-British negotiations over the future of Hong Kong through the economic lens favoured by the British side and described the Chinese side as primarily motivated by nationalism. However, 'nationalism' remains a vague concept in need of further definition. This paper focuses on the Chinese side of the negotiation table. It unpacks what 'nationalism' meant to Deng and Zhao within the context of the negotiations by examining three interrelated components: history, identity and emotion. This paper then analyses how the Chinese side used history, identity and emotion strategically during the negotiations, focusing on the September 1982 leaders' meetings as a case study. Adopting a constructivist lens, this paper examines historical documents against frameworks and theories from the social sciences, producing an interdisciplinary analysis of Chinese negotiation tactics. It unravels how China's leaders used the country's past to broadcast the Party's stance to the people, bolster their leadership position and win the advantage over Britain in the Hong Kong negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, Hong Kong implemented the New National Security Law (NNSL), effectively ending citizens' protests in the city. Between 2014 and 2022, youths spearheaded various protests, including the 2014 Umbrella Movement, the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill Protest and the 2020 NNSL Protest. Drawing on interviews with youth protesters and secondary sources, this study explores the connection between youth social movements and the exclusive identity of Hongkongers. This paper combines Christiansen's (2009) stages of social movement theory with Tajfel and Turner's (1979) social identity theory to explain the progression of youth movements that shaped the 'we' versus 'they' identity in Hong Kong. The research underscores the impact of mainland China's intervention in local affairs, which has bolstered a civic identity in opposition to a state-constructed national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carrying capacity of urban resources and environment is an important yardstick to measure the sustainable development of a city, and it is also an important indicator to measure the degree of synergy between urban economic development and the environment. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the economic, social, resource and environmental system carrying capacity of the cities in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) Economic Belt by building a state space model, so as to lay a theoretical foundation for promoting the green and sustainable development of the urban agglomeration in the GBA. The following conclusions were reached: (1) The resource and environmental carrying capacity of the 11 cities in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area is generally overloaded and shows an "N" distribution pattern. (2) The level of the city's opening to the outside world, the government's management ability, the investment of science and technology funds, and the industrial development are the main factors that affect the resource and environmental carrying capacity of the urban agglomeration. (3) The regression analysis results of the economic and social subsystems and resource subsystems of the 11 cities in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area are consistent with the results of the overall system of resource and environmental carrying capacity. The spatial differentiation characteristics are weakened, but the spatial differentiation characteristics of the resource and environmental carrying capacity of the environmental subsystem are gradually obvious. The innovation of this paper is that we can see the state of the resource and environment carrying capacity of the urban agglomeration in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area by building a state space model. Using GIS geographic mapping technology, we can clearly see the dynamic changes of urban agglomeration during the 10-year period and realize the unification of space–time evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper evaluated an electronic service-learning (e-SL) course utilizing regular and intensive delivery modes offered to undergraduate students in the 2020–2021 academic year. Methods: We collected pretest–posttest data (N = 130) and students' subjective evaluations of the course (N = 148) and the services they had provided (N = 160). Results: Students showed significant positive changes in both e-SL modes on positive youth development attributes, service leadership qualities, and life satisfaction, with greater changes among students taking the intensive mode. Students' views towards the e-SL course and the services they provided were positive, and students in the two e-SL modes did not differ significantly in their subjective evaluations. In addition, students' changes in outcome measures were positively associated with their subjective evaluations. Conclusions: The study provides additional support for the potential effectiveness of e-SL and suggests the promising application of intensive mode in implementing e-SL projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate extraction of urban residential space (URS) is of great significance for recognizing the spatial structure of urban function, understanding the complex urban operating system, and scientific allocation and management of urban resources. The traditional URS identification process is generally conducted through statistical analysis or a manual field survey. Currently, there are also superpixel segmentation and wavelet transform (WT) processes to extract urban spatial information, but these methods have shortcomings in extraction efficiency and accuracy. The superpixel wavelet fusion (SWF) method proposed in this paper is a convenient method to extract URS by integrating multi-source data such as Point of Interest (POI) data, Nighttime Light (NTL) data, LandScan (LDS) data, and High-resolution Image (HRI) data. This method fully considers the distribution law of image information in HRI and imparts the spatial information of URS into the WT so as to obtain the recognition results of URS based on multi-source data fusion under the perception of spatial structure. The steps of this study are as follows: Firstly, the SLIC algorithm is used to segment HRI in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) urban agglomeration. Then, the discrete cosine wavelet transform (DCWT) is applied to POI–NTL, POI–LDS, and POI–NTL–LDS data sets, and the SWF is carried out based on different superpixel scale perspectives. Finally, the OSTU adaptive threshold algorithm is used to extract URS. The results show that the extraction accuracy of the NLT–POI data set is 81.52%, that of the LDS–POI data set is 77.70%, and that of the NLT–LDS–POI data set is 90.40%. The method proposed in this paper not only improves the accuracy of the extraction of URS, but also has good practical value for the optimal layout of residential space and regional planning of urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) rhetoric and initiatives are gaining attention in Asian higher education. Yet, these are still underexplored in terms of their potential to bring about cohesive campus climates. As higher education institutions admit students from diverse backgrounds, there is room for examining how DEI might be leveraged to support growing student learning needs, particularly in contexts where cultural diversity is not the norm. Using Hong Kong as an example, this paper probes the genesis of DEI initiatives and sources of deficit thinking in higher education with reference to the experiences of ethnic minority (EM) students. It proposes a conceptualization of resilience theory from a social justice lens to counter deficit thinking and racism, which helps locate DEI initiatives in building culturally inclusive environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community screenings in this study are understood as the exhibition of moving images outside conventional theatres and commercial circuits. Based on fieldwork observations and interviews conducted between January 2019 and January 2020 with film workers, community groups, and venue providers who knitted together a rhizomatic community screening network in Hong Kong, this paper explores the (self-)making of urban cultural space by way of the reinvention of "screens" and the rebuilding of a place-based, people-centred community with ethical concerns for small businesses, artists, craftspeople, workers, and members of the public during the first two decades of postmillennial era. The paper concludes with some observations about the phenomenal shift in not only the mode, but also the site of film dissemination from Hong Kong to overseas diasporic communities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and following the emigration wave in the 2020s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the stock market effects of the arrival of the three rounds of "stimulus checks" to U.S. taxpayers and the single round of direct payments to Hong Kong citizens. The first two rounds of U.S. checks appear to have increased retail buying and share prices of retail-dominated portfolios. The Hong Kong payments increased overall turnover and share prices on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. We cannot rule out that these price effects were permanent. The findings raise novel questions about the role of fiscal stimulus in the stock market. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A considerable body of work now exists on the role that identity plays in understanding teachers and teaching. Developing and sustaining teacher identities in higher education can, however, be challenging given the subordinate positioning of teaching in some educational contexts. Despite the growth of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programmes in many parts of the world, recent research suggests that EAP practitioners are especially vulnerable to being assigned marginalized identities within the academy. Therefore, this paper reports the results of a study which used a short story approach to investigate the tensions and triumphs one EAP practitioner in Hong Kong experienced in constructing her language teacher identities (LTIs). Findings suggest that her identity tensions and struggles take place across space and time and play out at different scales, including classrooms, educational institutions, and within broader societal discourses. However, the short stories presented in this paper speak not only of tension and struggle, but also of determination and resilience to construct LTIs in the academy. Consequently, the results of this study can help to raise awareness amongst stakeholders, including policy makers, leaders of higher education institutions, and language teaching practitioners, of how they can support and sustain the construction of LTIs within the academy. Implications for professional learning for language teaching practitioners and suggestions for future research are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the Hong Kong Chief Executive's 2020 Policy Address, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government implemented strategies to integrate arts and technology as a new trend in cultural development. With the co-existence of a governmental initiative in 'arts and technology' ('arts tech') development and the rapid advancement of new technologies, it is frequently seen that new technologies (e.g., virtual reality [VR] and augmented reality) have been widely adopted in interactive media art productions in Hong Kong. Drawing on ethnographic research on a commercial virtual event, and a VR theatre performance produced by a Hong Kong cross-media creative studio, this study unveils discrepancies existing between government officials, commercial marketers, and art creators, ranging from objectives to practices in applying technologies to virtual art production. The juxtaposition of a market-driven commercial virtual campaign and the Chinese nationalist agenda embodied in the government-funded arts tech project reflects how the socio-historical background and changing political situation in Hong Kong extends its postcolonial neoliberal nationalism (PNN) to the arts tech arena. The contribution of this paper is two-fold: first, by adopting 'China as method' as epistemological analysis, the mediation of PNN by arts tech explains a 'southbound imaginary' in Hong Kong's arts and cultural practices through a changing relationship between Hong Kong and mainland China. Second, in contrast to the current scholarship focusing on human governance in the formation of neoliberal nationalism, this paper underscores the 'power' of techno-cultural material in mediating the neoliberal nationalism of Hong Kong, after its reversion to China, through arts tech development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the unique self-organised spatial and social structure of the Kat O coastal settlements in Hong Kong. By problematising the identity politics between built forms and landscapes, this paper analyses the village's deep-rooted history within the land‒water dichotomies, which have been shaped by government survey methods and conservation-development policies. Specifically, it presents the peri-urban condition of Kat O's coastal settlements as a departure from the traditional urban‒rural continuum perspectives. Empirically, the field documentation of the self-built additions presents critical perspectives into the static understanding of land ownership, addition and adaptation strategies and the building materialities embedded within the government survey methods and conservation-development policies. Theoretically, this study provides an understanding of these coastal settlements as cultural landscapes that are dynamically related to the environment, as well as the changing sociocultural relationships among different communities on the basis of their unique conceptions of habitation and living. By examining past and current conservation policies, this article advocates for a water-centric vision for countryside conservation in Hong Kong that transcends the commonly adopted terrecentric perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to construct a sonic understanding of the recent past of Hong Kong in protest. By utilizing and extending Steven Feld's framework of acoustemology, I examine the sonic events during protests and identify sounds in the cultural system understood among the inhabitants. I conducted a digital archival search of newspaper articles and created a dataset of the events sounding 'Glory to Hong Kong' during the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement. I explore three aspects: the participants, the space where the protest activities took place, and the sound generated and/or sounded in the activities. By demonstrating the interrelationality of them, I argue that sounds are able to reveal and (re-)claim spaces, establish a relationship between humans and space, bring an understanding of Hong Kong, and construct 'Hong Kong,' via collective sounding in protests and daily activities across time. This is the acoustemology of Hong Kong in protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have investigated how older people's daily activities and characteristics of the surrounding urban environment affect their emotions and daily satisfaction. This study fills the research gap by using a paper-based survey and a smartphone ecological momentary assessment (EMA) application (with GPS tracking and pop-up surveys about activities) to study older people's well-being in Hong Kong. Three hundred and two older adults completed the paper survey and forty-two of them further completed a six- to seven-day EMA survey. Based on a total of 1,530 activity episodes, generalized estimating equation models were developed to examine the relationship between older people's socioeconomic background, activity participation, urban environment characteristics, and their feelings of happiness and calmness. Results show that older people's daily life satisfaction is affected by the emotions they experienced throughout the day. In particular, a higher level of happiness was associated with socializing, leisure, and recreation activities taking place outside of the immediate neighborhood, and calmness was best achieved during passive relaxation and resting activities within the residential neighborhood. Furthermore, characteristics of the environment at activity locations are statistically significant in explaining momentary well-being. The findings support the planning for age-friendly cities and communities through encouraging older people to engage in activities outside their residential neighborhoods and designing activity locations with more leisure facilities, lower road density, and higher exposure to water bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of the democratic movement during 2014–2020 prompted tens of thousands of Hongkongers (~40,000) to reluctantly leave their hometown and migrate to Taiwan to seek a freer future. Taiwan's cultural similarity to Hong Kong, together with Taiwan's democracy and geographic proximity, are commonly recognized as pull factors of migration. However, the intensifying cross-strait tensions since late 2021 have witnessed Taipei tighten its approval of Hongkongers' applications for permanent residency mainly in fear of the infiltration of Chinese agents. Based on mixed-methods in-depth interviews (N = 15) and an online survey (N = 147) with Hong Kong migrants, this paper reveals their complex experience in adapting to the Taiwan way of life, becoming frustrated by Taipei's attitudinal change, and contemplating onward migration. The findings reveal underlying cultural differences between Hong Kong and Taiwanese societies—manifesting as a cultural conflict—amid fears of an encroaching communist China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a case study of teaching Cantonese to Hong Kong ethnic minority pre-schoolers using process drama. Based on Deleuzo-Guattarian concepts of minor literature and language, becoming and de-/re-territorialisation, this paper aims to reconceptualise a playful adaptation of process drama developed by Joe Winston (2012) as a language-minoritising approach to the teaching and learning of a major language that is very foreign to children. The findings suggest that, to accomplish ethnic minority children's becoming Cantonese speakers, the theatre games and language play should involve minoritorisation and de-/re-territorialisation of the normative practices of process drama, the target language as well as learner identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In order to determine whether the factors affecting office worker well-being are location dependent, this exploratory study analyses the relative importance of different "building well-being" factors for prime office workers in two leading but environmentally contrastive real estate markets: London and Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a mixed methods sequential explanatory design (follow-up explanations model), consisting of three phases: an exploratory phase to refine the building well-being factors, a quantitative phase utilising a questionnaire to assess the relative importance of these building well-being factors (N = 281: London = 171; Hong Kong = 110), followed by a final phase of follow-up interviews with respondents to explore the reasons behind the significant differences observed in the quantitative phase (N = 13: London = 7; Hong Kong = 6). Findings: While London and Hong Kong share some highly-ranking factors in common, significant differences in importance are observed for 17 of the 31 identified factors as a result of contrasting physical, economic, and cultural environments. Originality/value: Despite growing recognition of the importance of the built environment on well-being, to the authors' knowledge there has been no previous research investigating how building well-being demands may vary systematically across geographies. Understanding these differences has important implications for interpreting building well-being research, effective business operations, real estate investment, building certification scheme design, and governance of the built environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graffiti is widely used in social movements globally, yet media and communication research disproportionately focus on the role of social and new media technologies in protest movements. In this paper I ask why university students – a tech-savvy generation – resorted to graffiti and why campus graffiti were not widely circulated on social media during the Hong Kong anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (ELAB) protests. I argue that graffiti enables dispersed resistance and is one way to mobilize, voice dissent, and preserve memory in an increasingly surveilled and evolving repressive media environment. I pursue this argument by analyzing graffiti photographed on university campuses during the anti-ELAB protests. Situating graffiti within protest culture in Hong Kong, I conclude that graffiti are not always circulated on digital/social media to reach a broader audience. In times of crises, not reaching a wider audience is a manifestation of dispersed resistance in a hybrid media environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting with an initiative called Buddhicised education, there have been calls to reform Chinese Buddhism for a century. Based on documentary research of textbooks and in-depth interviews, this paper examines the reform of Buddhicised education in Hong Kong since 2000. Facilitated by the Hong Kong government's education reform, Buddhicised education has gone in a new direction. The promotion of character education and caring for the heart have become more significant than ever in addressing the daily life issues and social concerns of students. Buddhicised education can be broadly redefined as life education for whole-person development in terms of beliefs, values, morality, character, positive emotions and spirituality. Reforms have been made in both the formal and informal curricula by incorporating moral and life education, contemplative education and sustainable education, as well as taking a student-centred approach such as experiential learning. This paper also discusses the implications of Buddhist modernism and the prospects of Buddhicised education in the religious education context of Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers' reflexivity usually focuses on the spatiality and sociality of their ethnographic fieldwork. As a result, the temporal context of their positionality, whereby their various identities interact with one another at different research phases, is often overlooked. This paper adopts an agentic intersectional approach and draws from our separate studies of Thai migrant women in Belgium and Hong Kong to unpack the temporality of the power dynamics between study participants and us (the researchers). Through this reflexive exercise, we identify three salient aspects: first, different identities of the researchers intersect at each phase of the study; second, researchers are dependent on gatekeepers and study participants, notably during the data-gathering phase; and third, the changing researcher–participant dynamics throughout the research process are embedded in broader relations of power that encompass social institutions and migrant/ethnic networks. Hence, researchers' self-discipline and constant awareness of positionality are of utmost importance for achieving well-situated knowledge (re)production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"New quality productivity" is an important term put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping in September 2023 during his visit and research in Heilongjiang. It is a form of productivity relative to traditional productivity, characterized by high technology, high energy efficiency and high quality, with science and technology innovation as the core driving force, and with a wide range of permeability and integration. To develop new quality productivity, it is inseparable from scientific and technological innovation and the development of new industries. Digital economy and intelligence are important paths to develop new quality productivity. The purpose of this paper is to explore the path and its impact of digital intelligence innovation on productivity enhancement in the Greater Bay Area from a multi-dimensional perspective. The study first starts with the policy environment, outlines the policy background of the Greater Bay Area, comprehends the formation and development of the digital economy, and analyzes in depth how policies promote digital innovation. On this basis, the paper explores the specific impact of digital intelligence innovation on productivity and its path from three perspectives: technological, social and cultural. Under the technological perspective, this paper focuses on the technology -- driven mechanism of digital intelligence innovation, including its direct impact on the optimization of industrial structure and productivity enhancement, and analyzes in detail the breakthroughs in major technological fields and their role in promoting the regional economy. Through technological innovation cases, it demonstrates how digital innovation can enhance productivity at the technological level and inject new vitality into the economy of the Greater Bay Area. The social perspective focuses on how digital intelligence innovation can enhance social governance, drive social benefits and public services, and explore the role of digital intelligence innovation in promoting social inclusion and narrowing the digital divide. By analyzing the specific practices and effects at the social level, it reveals the important role of digital intelligence innovation in social development. The cultural perspective analyzes the integration of digital intelligence innovation with regional culture and explores its role in promoting the cultural industry. It demonstrates the specific practices of the integration of culture and technology through typical cases, emphasizes the importance of regional cultural identity and innovation atmosphere, and proposes how to further enhance the productivity of the Greater Bay Area through cultural innovation. In the comprehensive analysis section, this paper integrates the analysis results from various perspectives and proposes the future development trend of digital intelligence innovation and its long-term impact on productivity enhancement in the Greater Bay Area. Finally, based on the findings, this paper proposes a series of policy recommendations and optimization paths, including strengthening policy support, promoting technological research and development, and fostering social inclusiveness and cultural innovation, with a view to providing scientific references and practical guidance for the future development of the digital intelligence economy in the Greater Bay Area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an approach to understanding high-density living in precarious housing. Developing a conception of housing density based on 'density expressions' and 'density modalities', we argue for a focus on how domestic density is experienced and intervened in by residents and other groups. This approach builds in existing work in Housing Studies and Urban Studies on domestic overcrowding by demonstrating the value of attending to its sensorial experiences, and practices that seek to alleviate those experiences. Drawing on fieldwork in Hong Kong, one of the densest and more unequal housing markets in the world, we identify 'infiltration' as a key form of density expression. We go on explore two density modalities through which residents and other groups, including civil society organisations and the state, practice modest forms of intervention in the struggles of precarious housing: 'improvisation' and 'transition'. We conclude by considering the implications both on housing in Hong Kong and for future research on precarious housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization has resulted in the substantial population growth in metropolitan areas. However, existing research on population change of the cities predominantly draws on grid statistical data at the administrative level, overlooking the intra-urban variegation of population change. Particularly, there is a lack of attention given to the spatio-temporal change of population across different urban forms and functions. This paper therefore fills in the lacuna by clarifying the spatio-temporal characteristics of population growth in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) from 2000 to 2020 through the methods of local climate zone (LCZ) scheme and urban–rural gradients. The results showed that: (1) High population density was observed in the compact high-rise (LCZ 1) areas, with a noticeable decline along urban–rural gradients. (2) The city centers of GBA experienced the most significant population growth, while certain urban fringes and rural areas witnessed significant population shrinkage. (3) The rate of growth tended to slow down after 2010, but the uneven development of population-based urbanization was also noticeable, as urbanization and industrialization varied across different LCZ types and cities in GBA. This paper therefore contributes to a deeper understanding of population change and urbanization by clarifying their spatio-temporal contingences at landscape level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the nature and characteristics of the volatility transmission channels of major crash events in international stock markets between 03 July 1997 and 09 March 2021. Using dynamic conditional correlations (DCC) for conditional correlations and volatility clustering, GARCH-BEKK for the direction of transmission of disturbances, and the Diebold-Yilmaz spillover index for the level of volatility contagion, the paper finds that the climbs in external shock transmissions have long-lasting impacts in domestic markets due to the contagion effect during crisis periods. The findings also reveal that the heavier magnitude of financial stress is transmitted between Asian countries via the Hong Kong stock market. Additionally, the degree of volatility spillovers between advanced and emerging equity markets is smaller compared to the pure spillovers between advanced markets or emerging markets, offering a window of opportunity for international market participants in terms of portfolio diversification and risk management applications. Furthermore, the study introduces a novel early warning system created by integrating DCC correlations with a state-of-the-art deep learning model to predict the global financial crisis and COVID-19 crisis. The experimental analysis of long short-term memory network finds evidence of contagion risk by verifying bursts in volatility spillovers and generating signals with high accuracy before the 12-month crisis period. This provides supplementary information that contributes to the decision-making process of practitioners, as well as offering indicative evidence that facilitates the assessment of market vulnerability for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informational domain related to COVID-19 reflects the degree of uncertainty and pace of evolution of the pandemic. This places a burden on peoples' searches for information to guide their choices, importantly including for COVID-19 vaccines. Thus, it is important for health communications that support vaccination campaigns to attenuate vaccine hesitancy to be accessible, including in terms of readability, and adapted to the evolving pandemic. This paper aims to understand internet searches on COVID-19 vaccination, specifically the mix of sources and readability of the sources over a two-year period (2021–2023) in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines, for search results in English, as English is a main language for each of these locations. The sources accessed through online searches in June 2021 and May 2023 were categorized by type of source and whether they were from one of the focal locations or elsewhere. The readability of information from web-search results was assessed using a set of readability tests (Flesch–Kincaid Reading Ease, Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index, Coleman–Liau Index, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Grade level). Over the two-year period there was an increase in government sources and reduction in mass media sources with distinct local patterns. Local government sources increased in Singapore whereas foreign government and multi-lateral organization sources increased in Hong Kong, with the Philippines being an intermediate pattern. In contrast to the changing mix of sources, the readability tests indicate a low proportion of URLs scoring within recommended readability thresholds across locations and types of sources over the two years. Information on COVID-19 vaccine development and deployment is an important part of health communications that includes internet search. The paper contributes to understanding health communications during a pandemic, including mix of local and non-local sources and contingency on local social and health context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed several chinks in the armour of public health infrastructure across the world. However, the impact of the pandemic has been assessed primarily from the perspective of the 'privileged' members of society. The experiences of the 'other' world inhabited by the marginalised communities, who have had their livelihoods crushed under the weight of the pandemic, have been scarcely documented. As thousands of migrant workers were more scared of death caused by hunger rather than the disease itself, the various steps taken by different countries to curb community transmission have unveiled the ugly side of these measures. For example, as several states such as the US, the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, and India/Bharat imposed lockdowns, border closures, quarantines, inter alia, the most vulnerable section of the human population has been the migrant workers, especially those individuals who were employed in the unorganised sector. Thus, the global health crisis has unravelled deep-rooted deficiencies, racial biases, and an overall lack of concern and empathy for the lesser privileged, apart from the growing socio-economic divide between the rich and the poor. This research paper aims to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrant workers in the informal sector by exploring the measures imposed by the US, the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, and India/Bharat and analyse how their fundamental rights, including the right to development, were compromised. Through this paper, the author provides a five-point strategic framework that can be adopted globally to prevent such instances in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores how and why protestors from the 2019 anti-ELAB (Extradition Law Amendment Bill) movement turned to popular Chinese religious practice for political dissent, and simultaneously tracks the negotiation of emerging sociocultural identities of Hong Kongers in the face of political upheaval. Attempting to pressure the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government into meeting their demands, protestors adopted a wide range of tactics that brought protest activities to previously unaffected residential districts. Although no less hectic than other months during the movement, August 2019 also produced indelible moments of nonviolent innovation that attracted international media coverage. One of the protest events from this fertile period, the Hong Kong–wide Night Assemblies for Freeing Spirits, Almsgiving, Prayers for Merit, and Removal of Evil 全港超幽佈施祈褔除惡晚會, was held on August 9, 2019, in the districts of Wong Tai Sin and Shatin and specifically centered religious practice as a creative and potent source of political expression. To better understand this intersection of religion, politics, and identity in Hong Kong, this article analyzes protestors' ritual utterances and interview responses from the protest event's proceedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While public consultation is a signature process of democratic policy formulation, many governments manoeuvre to refract citizen's opinions or conduct it perfunctorily. Using the case of a medium of instruction policy in Hong Kong, this article unveils the strategies that the state and citizens employ to put their opinion through to the final policy text, during a public consultation process. Recent literature has identified the mechanisms through which individual actors or organisations contribute to broad policy agenda-setting or policy programme development. However, yet to be investigated is how they – sometimes with conflicting interests – collectively negotiate a policy with the state via public consultations. This paper investigates this very phenomenon, building on previous work conducted in the public policy field, analysing 51 government-generated documents through both thematic content analysis and critical discourse analysis. The paper uncovers four strategies adopted by administrations (non-commitment, case closure, disengagement for irrelevance, and placation) to evade citizens' equity-oriented demands and stakeholders' three counter strategies (mobilising other stakeholders into a coalition, reopening the case pointing out a new problem, and appealing by affirming relevance). The state's discrete refusals and stakeholders' conjoint reengagement tactics draw our attention to the complexity and subtlety involved in negotiation via public consultations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do women manage domestic work spatially? How does that change throughout life and relate to their subjectivities and womanhood? Informed by feminist geographers' concept of 'lived' space and queer studies' concept of disjunctive modernity, this paper spatialises women's domestic practices through examining 43 older Hong Kong women's life stories on domesticity. Hong Kong women, since childhood, have creatively employed temporal-spatial strategies to multiply and shrink domestic space to negotiate domestic responsibilities and gender hierarchy prescribed by family and society. Domestic space changes throughout life and intersects with other spaces, including work, institutional, entertainment and public spaces. Through performing various domestic spatial practices at different points in their life course, these women have developed gendered subjectivities such as self-reliant and independent 'modern' womanhood, dutiful daughters and tiresome working mothers, which complement, negotiate and contradict with each other, constituting what we term 'disjunctive modern Hong Kong womanhood'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong, in contrast to its previous image as a glamourous global city, has recently been associated with negative keywords such as oppression, fear, violence and even human rights emergency, following the 2019 Anti‐Extradition Law Movement and later the implementation of National Security Law (NSL) in 2020. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Special Area Administration presented a post‐NSL policy direction as promising a 'Beautiful New Hong Kong'. This paper is aimed at understanding how Hongkongers have continuously lived with/against the imposed (re)writing of Hong Kong. We examined how Hongkongers have been taking initiatives to raise awareness about the 'slow emergencies' in Hong Kong and to counter it in various forms of 'evacuation', whether they are on the move or staying put in place, in order to pursue future‐making. We carried out a multi‐sited study on the two kinds of Hongkongers between January 2020 and August 2023. We talked to those who already left Hong Kong for Taiwan, the UK, Canada, and so forth, and with those who were debating about relocation and at the same time preparing for departure if necessary. We strategically read 'evacuation' in two senses: First, evacuation responds to emergencies and therefore by adopting 'evacuation' is itself a disagreement with the Beautiful New Hong Kong policy as curated by the state. Second, evacuation responds to geography of future and politics of simultaneity. We conceptualised 'normalisation of evacuation' to understand the future‐making behind the move in Hong Kong. The particular kind of evacuation discussed took shape in two forms, relocation elsewhere and reorganisation in situ, both of which, in our analysis, are demonstrating Hongkongers' agency in pursuing geographies of future beyond the state‐led agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief reflective piece considers the experience of academics in the field of comparative and international education in Hong Kong. It begins by examining the state of international higher education and the continued dominance of Western contexts and perspectives in publishing in comparative education even in the so-called global era. It contrasts Western-oriented historical and contemporary views of the field with the situation in East Asia and particularly Hong Kong, where lively international dialogue has always been a key theme of academic and intellectual life. Against pronouncements in recent decades of "the death" of Hong Kong, the paper asserts that comparative and international education remains a thriving domain in Hong Kong since the handover and provides further reflections on the history and state of the field today as well as its future promise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a densely populated city, Hong Kong's housing market is the least affordable in the world. This paper aims to uncover the underlying socio-economic factors behind the changing homeownership patterns of new immigrants before and after the handover. While Mainland immigrants enjoyed the highest likelihood of homeownership among new immigrants before the handover, their advantage disappeared after the handover. The findings support the Assimilation theory's prediction that homeownership is lower among those less assimilated in general, but not among Mainland migrants. Those who were married, well-educated, employers; and had longer residences were more likely to be homeowners. Various admission schemes are implemented to attract talents, professionals and entrepreneurs to reside in Hong Kong but there is no accompanying housing policy to enable immigrants to become homeowners. The results show the homeownership rate of new immigrants dropped by more than half after the handover. Immigrants may feel less secure calling Hong Kong their home if they don't own a "home". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper draws on the hands-on experience of HSBC in implementing distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based solutions through building its own proprietary tokenisation platform, HSBC Orion, and participating in various industry initiatives such the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)'s inaugural tokenised green bond issuance. The paper highlights key considerations for building DLT-based solutions and provides a view of the future state of digital assets as the ecosystem continues to grow and evolve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the view that community participation can be defined as the continuous trans-local mobility and localisation of not only organisations and individuals but also various nonhuman elements such as information and events, this paper explores how the community participation of Hong Kong in the conservation of Pokfulam Village is understood as socially extrospective and introspective processes. This paper is aimed to reveal how the knowledge of Treasure Hill in Taipei has been adapted (or not) to the community participation of Hong Kong's Pokfulam Village's heritage conservation. This provides insights into how the global flow of people, information, discourse, and technology has influenced the community participation in heritage conservation, especially across the Pacific Rim cities. Finally, the research discusses how local community can play a role in the dynamic local social structure of conserving their heritage, as well as 'whose heritage' in the mobility of global knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the countryside, where intensive rural development and rising property values have been observed since the late 1970s, the preservation and meaning of traditional dwellings have emerged as crucial considerations in shaping Hong Kong's countryside conservation policy. The focus of this paper is on the conservation of temples, as we are drawn to these structures not only for their architectural merit but also for their role as public buildings within the countryside. Consequently, their cultural significance is heavily influenced by the stakeholders they are associated with, distinguishing them from other types of dwellings. This paper examines the coastal landscape of South Lantau, which includes several villages with distinct traditions that have undergone significant transformations since the 1960s. Located at the southwest edge of Hong Kong, Lantau Island had a rural lifestyle that was relatively undisturbed before WWII because of the difficulty in accessing the island. However, in response to the large people influx from China's mainland after 1949, the Hong Kong government introduced the Lantau Development Plan in 1953, mainly to open up new sources of freshwater resources for Hong Kong Island. The construction of South Lantau Road in 1955 and Shek Pik Reservoir in 1957 gradually led to the decline of agricultural activities in South Lantau and the population exodus of local villagers, resulting in a rupture to regional traditions. In multilineage communities such as the villages on South Lantau, worship of a common deity provides a vital source of social bonding, particularly for an area long beset by typhoons, piracy and banditry. Local people pray for safety and prosperity through collective rituals and celebratory activities. Therefore, temples are not only religious establishments but also embody the sense of social solidarity among villagers on South Lantau. Through the case study of three rural villages on South Lantau, this paper examines how temples play an important role in the continuity of the communal network amid repercussions from the postwar disruption of traditional rural life. Significantly, this pilot study also draws attention to the functions of temples in their historical context. It emphasises the importance of recognising and re-evaluating these buildings for cultural enhancement as part of community engagement. This study provides valuable insights for future conservation efforts for religious buildings in the countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the hands-on experience of HSBC in implementing distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based solutions through building its own proprietary tokenisation platform, HSBC Orion, and participating in various industry initiatives such the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)'s inaugural tokenised green bond issuance. The paper highlights key considerations for building DLT-based solutions and provides a view of the future state of digital assets as the ecosystem continues to grow and evolve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qianhai—an innovation park in Shenzhen—has the possibility of boosting innovation in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and in the wider region. This paper reviews the existing evidence about which policies have promoted profitable innovation in the Qianhai region (Hong Kong and Shenzhen) in the past. We also point to the importance of profitable innovation—rather than just innovation for its own sake. Profits attract and keep firms in an international financial centre. Yet, until we know exactly how much profitability these innovative firms require and how to promote such profitability, the advice given in the literature to Qianhai's and other policymakers will remain woefully inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper folding is a common activity in East Asian kindergartens, but its potential value to early spatial skills have not been empirically explored. This study aims to investigate whether and how paper folding skills can predict spatial ability (SA) in the early years. Altogether 101 preschoolers (Ngirl = 45, M age = 4.54, SD = 0.75) were randomly sampled from two Hong Kong kindergartens and invited to complete the map-use and the paper folding tasks. The paper folding task taps two levels of children's paper folding skills: Basic Folding Skill (BFS) and Advanced Folding Skill (AFS). The parents reported the demographic information and their involvement in spatial activities at home. The results indicated the following: (1) there was a significant age-related increase in the paper folding performance; (2) child age could significantly predict both BFS (β = 0.551, p < 0.001) and AFS (β = 0.627, p < 0.001), while parental involvement could only predict BFS (β = 0.246, p < 0.001); (3) after controlling for confounders, paper folding skills could significantly predict SA as measured by the map-use task; (4) BFS was found to mediate the relationship between parental involvement and SA. The educational implications of these findings are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines care as a contested bio‐political arena defining the daily lives of live‐in domestic care migrants in Hong Kong. It asks what roles migration infrastructures and mundane city landscapes play in mediating associated everyday care dynamics. Empirically, it examines two sets of care‐related infrastructures in the city that intimately mediate the population's everyday experience of care. The paper first examines the ways the regulatory infrastructures of the city state, whose operational logics are aligned with the production of 'permanent temporariness' and disposability, systematically deny migrants' access to institutional care for themselves. Second, the papers examine the ways care migrants improvise with the city's situational urban geographies and their human bodies as infrastructure resources during regular work‐bound urban outings to elaborate provisional, localised and informal care infrastructures. While not without challenges, these improvised informal care infrastructures essentially allow the migrant care‐labor population to live with their institu‐tionalised precarity. Overall, the paper makes three contributions. First, it reconceptualises live‐in domestic care migrants as urban actors capable of both navigating and crafting their own care infrastructures in the city, even during workdays. Second, it foregrounds 'care' as an urban and socio‐technical construct in relation to both bio‐political control and interpersonal coping. Third, it employs the ideas of precarity, provisionality and robustness to unpack the bio‐political systems that shape migrants' experiences of care. The findings are based on an analysis of the city's migration regulations and the actual urban work‐life stories of a small group of live‐in domestic care migrants based on participants' personal diaries and interviews with the participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study explores the politics of ideology in the process of sensegiving and sensemaking at a Japanese retailer in Hong Kong. Studies on power and politics are scarce despite key role of power and politics in understanding the factors behind the conflict between the management's policy legitimization (sensegiving) and employees' policy interpretation (sensemaking). By using the three dimensions proposed in the critical sensemaking approach (discourse, rules and contexts), this paper explores the complex mechanism of power and politics in sensemaking and sensegiving. Design/methodology/approach: Using 15 months of participant observation as a salesperson, this paper discusses how the Japan-centric customer service philosophy (dominant discourse), customer service policies and practices (organizational rules) and asymmetric power structure between the Japanese global headquarters and Hong Kong subsidiaries (formative contexts) are presented and perpetuated through the sensegiving–sensemaking process. Findings: Dominant discourse was observed in the management's sensegiving, which placed the Japanese style of customer service over others. This ethnocentric dominant discourse informed the creation of customer service policies, although the realization of the discourse was determined by the employees' conflicting interpretations of the organizational rules. As a formative context, an asymmetric power structure was present that positioned the Hong Kong subsidiary as subservient to the global headquarters in Japan. This shows that the political process of sensegiving and sensemaking deeply implicates the dominant discourse, organizational rules and power structure as central forces that determine the level of perpetuating ideology. Originality/value: This research illustrates the wider implications of power and politics in sensegiving–sensemaking studies and provides a complex picture of ethnocentric management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As demand for complementary and alternative medicine rises globally, introducing Chiropractic education in Hong Kong provides an opportunity to meet growing healthcare needs. This paper reports developments in Hong Kong, China and notes the challenges, regulatory barriers, limited public awareness of chiropractic care, competition from other healthcare professions, and constraints on funding and resources. I report strategies used by the successful group which has established the Hong Kong College of Chiropractic in Hong Kong, China in collaboration with the McTimoney College of Chiropractic of the UK, and note other Western institutions which were eager but not successful. Successful private chiropractic programs in New Zealand (NZCC) and Australia (ACC) have provided valuable examples to emulate. It is noted that over half the world's population now live in the region of which Hong Kong is an international city and looking to become a hub of Chiropractic education and Research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper investigates how individuals' decision-making approach and perceptions of a game's cognitive realism affect the performance of virtual businesses in a web-based simulation game. Design/methodology/approach: Survey data are collected from 274 business simulation game users and is analysed using the fsQCA technique. Findings: The study identifies three alternative pathways to high and low performance in a business simulation game. Results indicate that a flexible decision-making approach exists in all high performance pathway solutions. Where a game is perceived to be realistic, a more focused decision-making approach is associated with high performance. However, where perceived cognitive realism is absent, a less focused experimental decision-making approach is employed, which increases the chances to achieve low performance. Finally, perceived cognitive realism and an experimental decision-making approach are found to be mutually exclusive for achieving high performance. Originality/value: Whilst the learning benefits of web-based simulation games are widely acknowledged, the complex interplay amongst factors affecting performance in games is under-researched. Limited research exists on how perceptions of a game's cognitive realism interact with user decision-making approaches to affect performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]