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Shopping malls have replaced traditional public spaces and become an integral part of urban life in many cities. This paper seeks to explore the role of shopping malls as protest sites in Hong Kong during the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill protest movement in 2019. As the protests decentralised and filtered throughout the city, shopping malls became sites of protest and battlegrounds between riot police and protesters. In addition to singing and chanting, organising sit-ins, and exhibiting protest art inside shopping malls, protesters also confronted mall employees as well as disrupted businesses. Based on information gathered through media reports, planning and policy documents, as well as ethnographic observations, this paper aims to examine the role of shopping malls in the urban development of Hong Kong, their function as public spaces during the protest movement, and how the politicisation of shopping malls shaped and sustained the protest movement. This paper contends that the protesters' appropriation of shopping malls not only represented an important first step of reclaiming the right to the city, but also exemplified how such struggle and resistance can be extended beyond traditional protest sites and into different everyday spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on contemporary urban movements analyse how young people assert their right to the city by using street protests and occupations to physically reclaim urban space. Through an ethnographic study of Hong Kong, where the government regulates and monopolises control over urban space, this paper observes youth activists' efforts to reclaim the intangible aspects – the perceptions and meanings– of urban space through storytelling. It finds that youths celebrate quotidian stories emphasising the nostalgic and emotional aspects of urban space, to dispel government narratives of urban space as being a profit-generating commodity-object, and to prompt vernacular imaginings of alternative urban conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a setting of globalisation, rapid urbanisation, and neoliberal state restructuring, cities around the world have witnessed a dramatic increase in urban controversies over housing and other urban services. In theory and practice, the ‘right to the city’ is often invoked to support claims of underprivileged groups in these struggles. On the one hand, this draws attention to obstacles for inhabitants to access urban spaces (appropriation); on the other hand, it suggests that inhabitants should have a meaningful contribution to all decisions that determine the development of their cities (participation). Some argue that the right to the city can organise various underprivileged groups with diverse interests behind a common agenda for ‘real’ change. We reflect on that position through a discussion of three controversies in Hong Kong and Mumbai. We conclude that in actual cities, there is often not a clear-cut differentiation between the interests of elites and underprivileged groups as both classanddifference inform subject positions. Diverse groups thus assert diverse rights, resulting in conflicts between mixed coalitions of elites and underprivileged groups. Strategies to mobilise agents of change will have to speak to this heterogeneity of identities and interests in concrete settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of social equity and equal rights to the city has not been addressed comprehensively in the use of public open space, particularly the issue of the rapidly ageing population. Hence, this study extends the idea to examine older adults' right to use public open space in urban cities by asking whether the planning and design of open space have adequately catered for the special needs of the older age group. In this study, spatial analysis and environmental audits were applied to investigate the accessibility and quality of 58 open spaces in an old urban renewal district in Hong Kong. Results show the key variables that influence older adults' visits to open space in the high-density urban environment context. Particularly, the quality of open space is more important than accessibility factors for older adults' visits because of the compact urban form. Interestingly, street connectivity which is usually regarded as contributing positively to accessibility has adverse effects on older adults. Findings provide useful insights for urban planners to ensure accessible and inclusive planning of open spaces, which can enhance social equity for older adults in a high-density city. • An integrated framework to understand elderly's visit to open space • Both accessibility and quality factors related to elderly's visit to open space • Social equity is important issue to encourage elderly to use open space. • Elderly's preference varies in high- and low-SES neighbourhood. • Important to develop sufficient open space in urban renewal district in Hong Kong [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of right to the city has attracted increasing attention in urban planning area. However, many cities are far from providing equitable resources. The questions of what is, who has the right, and how it has been affected during urban renewal process have not been fully examined. Although access to public services is widely recognized as an important right, whether elderly's right to community facilities in urban renewal district has been addressed sufficiently still remains questionable. This study builds a conceptual framework to understand the factors affecting elderly's right to community facilities in an urban renewal district. Through focus group meetings held in three neighborhoods in Kwun Tong district and spatial analysis, elderly's perception and the provision of community facilities were ascertained. The findings reveal how inequitable provision of community facilities, gentrification caused by transit-oriented development mode and insufficient mobility services have affected elderly's right to access community facilities and deprived their rights. Urban renewal, as an important urban planning strategy, has not effectively remedied the inequality in access to public goods. The study recommends strategic planning policies to enhance equitable right to the city in the planning for building a more age-friendly community in urban renewal district. • A conceptual framework to understand factors affecting elderly's right to community facilities. • Inequitable provision is one of the factors that affect elderly's right to community facility. • Transit-oriented development mode has resulted in gentrification and inequitable provision. • Mobility also affect elderly's right to community facilities. • Urban renewal has not effectively remedied the inequality in access to public goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]