Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

2016 香港快樂指數調查 Hong Kong Happiness Index Survey 2016, Lok Sang Ho

Hong Kong Happiness Index 香港快樂指數調查

According to the results of the Hong Kong Happiness Index Survey conducted by Chu Hai College of Higher Education in collaboration with Lingnan University’s Centre for Public Policy Studies, the Happiness Index for Hong Kong people in 2016 stands at 67.6 (on a scale of 0 to 100), significantly lower than last year’s 70.0. However, the main decline occurs with those aged below 30, whose happiness index plunged from 69.3 to 63.8, the lowest score on record.

This decline in the self-reported happiness index, paradoxically, occurs at a time when people’s satisfaction with the living environment, the media, the …

Ownership Structure Impact On Exchange Rate Exposure Under The Rmb Regime Reform, Luning Jia

Theses & Dissertations

This thesis investigates effects of exchange rate exposure upon stock returns of a large sample of Chinese firms when they are divided into SOEs and non-SOEs. I obtain the exposure estimates first and examine their determinants. By extending the current literature, I introduce the ownership structure into the framework and I compare different ownership impacts on the exposure before and after the Reform. My study shows that a SOE or non-SOE firm makes no difference in facing the exchange rate exposure before the Reform. If a firm is a SOE, the firm faces smaller exposure after the Reform. I further …

The Roles Of Knowledge Assets In Promoting Firm Productivity And Innovation In China, Jingsi Yang

Theses & Dissertations

This paper investigates how intangible knowledge assets impact upon the firm’s products and the output of new products through a large panel data set covering all manufacturing firms from the period of 1998-2007. We hypothesize that more knowledge assets have a positive impact on total factor productivity and the ratio of new products to total products, but only up to a point, due to the importance of complementary assets. The inverse quadratic relationship found in the relationship between the ratio of knowledge assets to total assets and TFP suggests that it is necessary to balance knowledge assets with complementary assets …

Four Empirical Essays In Development Economics, Haftom Bayray Kahsay

Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation contains four empirical studies on related topics in development economics. The four studies are all randomized field experiments and all of them use original data obtained from rural households in Northern Ethiopia for empirical analysis. The first study examines the medium term effects of commercial weather index insurance. I examine a randomized controlled trial in which commercial weather index insurance was offered to rural households who are highly vulnerable to drought. The results show that weather index insurance can significantly improve agricultural investments, agricultural yield and also household finance.

The second study evaluates the effects of weather index …

Examining The Generation Effects On Job-Hopping Intention By Applying The Theory Of Planned Behavior (Tpb), Sze Hang Yuen

Theses & Dissertations

Job hopping is about people changing jobs frequently. This concept is slightly different from normal turnover in terms of employees staying in the present company for a short period of time only before they move on to the next job. While there appears to be an increased level of acceptance of job hopping, the phenomenon has also been associated with different problems faced by organizations, such as retaining experienced and trained employees. Past research has been directed to examining the roles of various social (e.g., perceived job availability) and psychological (e.g., job satisfaction, turnover culture, values and attitudes) factors in …

The Discourse Of Ruination : Interrogating Urban Renewal In Hong Kong, Eun Soo Lee

Theses & Dissertations

As stated in the Urban Renewal Strategy (2011), “the problem of urban decay” has been identified as the major task of urban renewal in Hong Kong. Rows of densely packed, “dilapidated” tenement buildings constitute the imaginary of a declining urban landscape that, much like the squatter areas of the 1950s, are seen to pose threats to public health and to the “prestige” of Hong Kong. I propose the concept of the discourse of ruination as a way to interrogate and at the same time, de-naturalise the pervasive assumption of the problem of decay, which serves to rationalise and perpetuate the …

Does Democracy Promotion Promote Democracy? The Zimbabwean Case, Ruvimbo Natalie Mavhiki

Theses & Dissertations

Why has the increase in election funding by both Western international organizations and governmental donor agencies not resulted in the deepening and consolidation of democracy in most African countries? This study assesses this question with reference to Zimbabwe. Significant financial and technical commitments have been invested for the establishment and consolidation of democracy in Zimbabwe, but instead of democratic consolidation, Zimbabwe has oscillated from a de facto one party state to a competitive electoral democracy and then to an electoral authoritarian regime. What explains this puzzling phenomenon? Can democracy promotion promote democracy, and if not, what are the pre-requisites for …

Repertoire, Framing And Visions : The Occupy Movement In Hong Kong, Ho Man Leung

Theses & Dissertations

The Occupy Movement is one of the most significant civic events in recent Hong Kong History. This thesis is an attempt to make a comprehensive understanding of the movement by analyzing the actual movement activities and illustrating occupiers’ justification of actions. Three major issues are of concern here. First, what actually happened during the movement? Second, why did the occupiers join the movement? Lastly, how did the occupiers justify their actions during the movement? In this regard, the concepts of repertoire, framing and vision, will be employed to guide this study. Considering the three main factions of the movement, including …

Performability And Translation : A Case Study Of The Production And Reception Of Ying Ruocheng’S Translations, Yichen Yang

Theses & Dissertations

The active scholarly contribution made by practitioners of theatre translation in the past decades has turned the research area into what is now considered a burgeoning field. Despite recent developments, it seems that performability, a long-discussed yet controversial concept in the study of theatre translation, would remain part of the practitioners’ discourse. Based on a historical survey of the production and reception of the translations of Anglo-American plays by Chinese actor-director Ying Ruocheng (1929-2003) in and around the 1980s, this study explores how the performability, or theatrical potential, of a translated playtext is constructed through the negotiation between/among the norms …

Rising Powers And Foreign Intrastate Armed Conflicts : Trends And Patterns Of China’S Intervention In African Civil Wars, Obert Hodzi

Theses & Dissertations

What influences one state to intervene in another’s intrastate armed conflict? In answering this question, existing scholarship has tended to emphasise the position of the intervening state in the international system; suggesting that, that is the main determinant factor of a state’s external intervention behaviour. As a result, existing research on intervention in foreign intrastate armed conflicts is dominated by a focus on great powers and their intervention methods. Employing the neoclassical realist causal logic, this thesis argues, on the contrary, that whether a state intervenes in a foreign intrastate armed conflict is a factor of both systemic and state …

在不明不暗的虚妄中寻找青春 : 当代中国“80 后”非政府组织工作者的价值观和行为转变研究, Guoyuan Sun

Theses & Dissertations

这是一个关于人的成长和转变的叙事研究。本研究的问题意识是：一方面，1990 年代以来，伴随着中国社会的进一步市场化，青年文化呈现出去政治化、物质主义、“小时代”的窄化的走向。越来越多的青年人希望进入“体制”，以求得社会认可、物质有保障之生活。但另一方面，1990 年代以来亦是中国民间非政府组织（NGO）迅速发展的时期，一小部分青年人选择在NGO 工作。然而，NGO 长期以来面临着公众的不理解、政府一定程度的漠视甚至猜测以及物质上的低回报。本研究正是希望进入NGO 工作者的生命故事，理解他们为何逆社会窄化的价值之流、选择在NGO 工作，形成了怎样的文化以及如何形成这一文化。另一方面，本研究亦希望向组织内部回观以批判性地分析NGO 携带的意识形态、操演等如何对工作者的价值观和行为产生不经意的影响，以期改造其身处之社会脉络。

因此，本研究试图回答的研究问题是：在1980 年代以来的社会脉络之下，“80 后”NGO 工作者如何与发展主义和“小时代”的青年文化、以及NGO 内部的文化与操作进行协商？形成了怎样的价值观和行为方式？

本研究通过叙事研究方法，深入理解10 位NGO 工作者的生命故事和日常实践。采取Dorothy Holland 等(1998)的形意世界(figured worlds)理论视角，本研究认为：一方面，NGO 工作者在参与NGO 的过程中增进了自我认识和成长，对社会发展有更深的理解和反思，并且形成一定的介入社会和公共生活的行动。另一方面，NGO 的操作中，可能带有缩窄批判思考和开放的学习多种思想资源的空间，缺乏对社会问题成因和解决方案的深入分析与公开论述，习惯性地以“主流”/“另类”二元简化的分析视角，这无益于NGO 工作者的成长，也可能阻碍NGO 对于社会和人的改造的工作。

服務研習通訊第二十一期 Office Of Service-Learning Newsletters, Volume 21, Office Of Service-Learning, Lingnan University

SLant 嶺召

於本學年起，服務研習成為嶺大本科生的畢業要求。今期《嶺召》介紹三個學系的服務研習課程及計劃，以及海外交流經驗，讓讀者了解服務研習為授課導師、學生及社區帶來的成果。

Starting from this academic year, Service-Learning is a graduation requirement for undergraduate students of Lingnan University. This issue of “Slant” shares the stories of Service-Learning courses and projects from three academic departments and an oversea tour so as to demonstrate the positive impact of Service-Learning on course instructors, students and the community.

Architecture As Artefact, Socialfact, And Mentalfact : On The Hypothetical Works Of Office Of Strategic Architecture (Osa) : Part 2 = 建築作為藝術、社會、精神之平台 : 策略建築局前設工作 : 第二部分, Eka Swadiansa

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 28th July 2016, Eka Swadiansa gave us a lecture at the Third South South Forum on Sustainability. The lecture was titled Architecture as Artifact, Socialfact and Mentalfact: on the Hypothetical Works of OSA .He divided the lecture into six parts:

1. Architecture as Artefact
2. Architecture as Socialfact
3. Architecture as Artefact VS Socialfact
4. Architecture as Mentalfact
5. Office of Strategic Architecture (OSA)
6. Tadao Ando Works: Architecture as Faith Mentalfact (Extended Discussion)

This was the afternoon session of the lecture.

Architecture As Artefact, Socialfact, And Mentalfact : On The Hypothetical Works Of Office Of Strategic Architecture (Osa) : Part 1 = 建築作為藝術、社會、精神之平台 : 策略建築局前設工作 : 第一部分, Eka Swadiansa

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 28th July 2016, Eka Swadiansa gave us a lecture at the Third South South Forum on Sustainability. The lecture was titled Architecture as Artifact, Socialfact and Mentalfact: on the Hypothetical Works of OSA .He divided the lecture into six parts:

1. Architecture as Artefact
2. Architecture as Socialfact
3. Architecture as Artefact VS Socialfact
4. Architecture as Mentalfact
5. Office of Strategic Architecture (OSA)
6. Tadao Ando Works: Architecture as Faith Mentalfact (Extended Discussion)

This was the morning session of the lecture.

Global Financial Crisis And Challenges : Discussion = 全球金融危機與挑戰 : 討論, Tak Hing, Erebus Wong

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 27th July 2016, at SSFS 3, Erebus Wong gave a presentation titled "More Science or Ethnics in Economics and Finance?".

Contra Hegemony : Part 2 : Post Capital Business Planning And Its Global Market Potencies = 逆反霸權 (2) : 後資本主義商業計劃及其全球市場潛力, Eka Swadiansa

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 27th July 2016, at the Third South South Forum on Sustainability, Eka Swadiansa delivered the second part of his presentation on Contra Hegemony. The title of this session is Contra Hegemony (Part 2): Post Capital Business Planning and its Global Market Potencies.

Contra Hegemony : Part 1 : Conscious Regional Planning And Its Adaptive Development Policies = 逆反霸權 (1) : 有意識之區域規劃及其靈活之發展政策, Eka Swadiansa

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 27th July 2016, at SSFS 3, Eka Swadiana delivered the first part of his talk on Contra Hegemony. This session is titled Contra Hegemony (Part 1): Conscious Regional Planning and its Adaptive Development Policies.

This presentation talked about recent Indonesian government policies launched under the leadership of the currently in power President Joko Widodo; in the discourse to his very limited fiscal gap, the dream of undergoing vast development, and the blue print of national development formulated by taking the long forgotten Indonesian local wisdom to envision a foreseen optimistic future. Some insights on both state and privately owned …

Latin America : Exhaustion Of Post-Neocapitalist Experiences? How To Think Our Future? = 拉丁美洲 : 後新資本主義耗盡的經驗? 怎樣思考我們的未來?, François Houtart

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 26th July 2016, François Houtart delivered a lecture on Latin America, which was titled Latin America: Exhaustion of Post-Neocapitalist Experiences? How to Think Our Future?.

Delirious New World : Static City And The Engineering Of Collective Spaces Of Otherness = 瘋狂新世界 : 靜態城市與異態集體空間, Eka Swadiansa

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 25th July 2016, Eka Swadiansa gave us a talk titled Delirious New World: Static City and the Engineering of Collective Spaces of Otherness.

中國建築與城市主義 = Architecture And Urbanism : The Case Of China, Aibin Yan, Huizhong Bin

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 25th July 2016, Bui Huizhong and Yan Aibin gave a presentation based on the topic: Architecture and Urbanism: the Case of China.

中國金融資本主義與三農問題 = Financial Capitalism And The Agrarian Question In China, Xiaohui Yan, Ping Wang

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 25th July 2016, Yan Xiaohui and Wang Ping talked on Financial Capitalism and the Agrarian Question in China.

The Agrarian Question In Asia = 亞洲三農問題, Chantana Banpasirichote

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 25th July 2016, at SSFS 3, Chantana Banpasirichote gave us a lecture on the Agrarian Questions in Asia.

Latin America : Agrarian Question : Agriculture Vs Capitalist Modern Agriculture : Land, Water, Forests = 拉丁美洲 : 三農問題農業 Vs 現代資本主義農業 : 土地、水、森林, François Houtart

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 25th July 2016, at SSFS 3, François Houtart gave us a lecture on Latin America: Agriculture vs Capitalist Modern Agriculture: Land, Water, Forests.

No Fire Zone : The Killing Fields Of Sri Lanka : Discussion = 無戰火地帶 : 斯里蘭卡之殺戮戰場 : 映後座談, François Houtart, Jude Lal Fernando

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 24th July 2016, François Houtart and Jude Lal Fernando showed us a documentary called "No Fire Zone — the Killing Fields of Sri Lanka". This is the discussion session.

Popular Movements In Southeast Asia = 東南亞民眾運動, Surichai Wungaeo

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 24th July 2016, Surichai Wungaeo gave us a talk titled Popular Movements in Southeast Asia.

Popular Movements In Korea = 韓國民眾運動, Jung Ok Lee

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 24th July 2016, at the Third South South Forum, Lee Jung Ok delivered a talk titled Popular Movements in Korea.

Latin America : Popular Movements, Progressive Governments And Present Political Crisis = 拉丁美洲 : 民眾運動、進步政府與當前政治危機, François Houtart

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 24th July 2016, at SSFS 3, François Houtart gave us a lecture on Latin America: Popular Movements, Progressive Governments and Present Political Crisis.

Roundtable : Regional Perspectives And Politics = 圓桌討論 : 區域視野與政治, Darwis Khudori, Pedro Páez, Ran Wei, Tak Hing, Erebus Wong, Kwok Ming Ma

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 23rd July 2016, the first roundtable of SSFS3 was launched. Moderated by Ma Kwok Ming, this session consisted of 4 presentations by different speakers: Darwis Khudori, Pedro Páez, Wei Ran and Erebus Wong.

Seven Developing Countries : From Emergence To Entrapment = 新興七國報告 : 從興起到陷入困境, Tak Hing, Erebus Wong

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 23rd July 2016, at the Third South South Forum on Sustainability, Erebus Wong gave us a presentation based on the report from him along with Wen Tiejun, Lau Kin Chi and Sit Tsui.

Regional Integration And Capitalist Crisis = 區域整合與資本主義危機, Pedro Páez

South South Forum 南南論壇

On 23rd July 2016, Pedro Páez gave a talk on Regional Integration and Capitalist Crisis at the Third South South Forum on Sustainability.