Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

香港子女贍養父母立法研究, King Yung, Anna Tang

Theses & Dissertations

1956 年，聯合國發表第一部研究世界人口老齡化的專著《人口老齡化及其社會經濟後果》，向全球發出人類將面臨人口老齡化命運的預警。聯合國老齡化問題世界大會，先後於1982 年和2002 年召開，制定多項行動綱領和目標計劃，呼籲各國遵照和參與。

1981 年，香港步入老齡化社會。根據2006 年中期人口調查報告，當時65歲或以上的老年人口佔香港總人口的12.4%，預計到2033 年，將會高達26.8%。香港一向以「家庭養老」作為主要的安老政策，回歸之後，亦以「老有所養」作為治港方針之一。目前的趨向是政府取代了多種傳統家庭的養老功能，狹窄的稅基是否能承擔得起龐大的福利開支？香港如何完善香港現時退休保障制度？為人子女供養父母的責任仍應否存在？或以立法強制子女供養父母是否可行？如此種種都是值得探討的問題。

本文以社會學紥根理論的研究方法、程序、技術進行研究，並與法社會學相關的基礎理論有機地結合，通過歸納分析逐步產生理論。設計出分為三個階段完善的特設框架：（一）文獻分析及初步歸納認為應有立法方向：在眾多文獻中提煉出主幹性的資料，包括國際社會解決老齡化問題的政策和方針，遠古中國的養老法律制度；探討「孝」具有「齊家治國」的奧妙；概述世界各國供養父母的立法情況；擷取新加坡《贍養父母法案》與中國《老年人權益保障法》進行比較；採用受英國普通法直接影響的新加坡《贍養父母法案》為藍本，以香港特質建構一套初步的法例結構框架；（二）將此框架交於專業人士驗証；（三）此框架經過優化後成為較可行的步驟，進行個案試行及模擬調解。指出對抗制訴訟體制可能激化家庭矛盾，建議在進入訴訟程序之前必須設立「贍養調解前置機制」。

本文冀能收抛磚引玉之效，以喚起政府及早完善長者多支柱生活保障的長遠策略，並就贍養父母議題展開公眾諮詢，引發各界進行討論，醖釀社會的共識，達到尋得真理的預期目標。

A Study Of Household Finance In China, Zhen Huang

Theses & Dissertations

The emerging field of household finance, which studies the welfare benefits of financial markets for households and how effectively households use this market, is of significant importance for both academics and policy makers. However, studies in this new field remain scarce. Using data from a national representative survey that is unique for its combination of abundant household characteristics and heterogeneous individual preferences, attitudes and believes, and for its inclusion of investment behaviour and performances, this thesis pioneers a positive household finance study in developing countries by systematically investigating Chinese householders’ investments in the stock market. Moreover, this is the first …

Japan As China's 'Other': China's Identity And Policy Towards Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, Filip Viskupic

Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines contemporary Sino-Japanese relations, in particular the Chinese policy towards the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands following the end of the Cold War. It answers the puzzle of why the territorial dispute emerged as such a divisive issue in the bilateral relations between China and Japan.

This thesis embraces a constructivist perspective of international relations and puts forward the concept of identity. Identity is understood here as the image of individuality and distinctiveness held by a state in international relations and by having an identity is to live and act according to the defining features of identity. Drawing upon discourse analysis …

A Study Of The Universities Of The Third Age In Hong Kong : An Evaluation Of Elder Academy Model For The Life Long Learning Of Older People, Ka Fai Wong

Theses & Dissertations

Education aims at the development of knowledge and skills for its own sake and pleasure. People aged over 65 years currently comprise 11% of the Hong Kong population. Such aging population in Hong Kong constitutes a challenge to our society. To be adaptive to changes in the environment, especially in aging, more emphasis is placed on “lifelong learning” than on “lifelong education” for self-fulfillment Active aging is evidently supported as a solution to the impact of aging population. Lifelong learning is an important strategy for enhancing active aging. The provision and process of lifelong learning for older people can take …

Citizenship Education In Post-1997 Hong Kong : Civic Education Or Nationalistic Education?, Kit Man

Theses & Dissertations

This study investigates citizenship education policy under the “One Country, Two Systems” model in Hong Kong. A number of studies have analyzed the Hong Kong-China national unification from the political, legal, economic, socio-cultural perspectives. This study approaches Hong Kong-China integration from the hotly contested issue of nationalistic education, attempted to be implemented by the Hong Kong government in the official school curriculum. I use as my data sources official documents issued by government agencies including the Chief Executive’s annual Policy Address, an internal report of the Commission on Strategic Development, and curriculum guides of the Curriculum Development Council to tease …

Equilibrium And Strategies Of Horizontal Mergers Inasymmetric Differentiated Oligopoly, Juan Lu

Theses & Dissertations

Building an asymmetric differentiated goods quantity competition model, the present paper explores how substitutability of products, one of the factors affecting the unilateral effect, determines horizontal mergers and acquisitions equilibrium and strategies. It seems intuitively obvious that the merger between firms with goods that are sufficiently close substitutes can be more profitable. However, this thesis's counter-intuitive results show that, for some parameter values, a merger is more profitable for the merging firm when the target firm produces a distant substitutes (i.e., when it is not the closest competitor to the acquiring firm in the market).The theoretical analysis shows that to …

Triad Movies And Young People's Perception Of Triads In Hong Kong, Alexandre Cerda

Theses & Dissertations

Triads are Chinese organized crime groups based in Hong Kong. Their origin remains uncertain despite the many different versions given. As they are secret and illegal, many facts remain unknown about them. Even though they have been associated with values such as honor and loyalty in the past, they are nowadays involved mainly in vice related activities such as gambling and prostitution. Their goal which is supposed to have been nationalistic also seems to have changed to only be profit making. Despite the fact that the scope of their activities have decreased since the 1970`s they are still active nowadays. …

Social Differentiation And Age-Friendly Characteristics : A Case Study In Tuen Mun, Yuen Ling, Elaine Yau

Theses & Dissertations

Hong Kong is one of Asia’s more demographically-aged cities, with 14% of population aged 65+ in 2012, projected to be 23% by 2025. Facilities and transport are generally good by world standards although the urban environment may not consistently be particularly ‘age-friendly’. Drawing on a range of urban sub-areas, this research investigated the ‘age-friendliness’ of Tuen Mun, a ‘new town’ of half a million population in Hong Kong. This study was also interested in socio-cultural variables and age-friendly cities (AFC) characteristics in its predominantly Chinese population, and relationships with psychological well-being (PWB).

A total of 503 participants aged 50 years …

Extending Job Demands-Resources Model : The Roles Of Energy Management Strategies And Recovery Experiences In Facing Differentiated Job Demands, Cho Ngan Siu

Theses & Dissertations

Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) provides valuable insight in identifying the antecedents and consequences of work stress and engagement. Nevertheless, the roles of personal resources and differentiated job demands (i.e., challenge demands and hindrance demands) have received less attention in the literature. Studies on their interaction effects are even rarer. This thesis reports two studies intending to fill this gap of knowledge.

Study 1 aimed to develop a new scale of energy management strategies (EMS) at work and to demonstrate its reliability. A self-administered questionnaire survey adopting a cross-sectional design was conducted among 323 employees recruited from …

The Impact Of Social Capital On Bank Risk-Taking, Wenjing Xie

Theses & Dissertations

The concept of “social capital” has received considerable attention these years. Yet, few studies have explored the connections between social capital and bank risk-taking. In this study, I discuss the theory of social capital and its relevance to financial market behavior, and then I analyze the relationship between social capital and bank risk-taking across countries. To measure social capital, I follow Knack and Keefer (1997) and use the data of trust and civic norms collected from the World Values Survey. My measure of bank risk-taking is the nature logarithm of Z-score of each bank. Empirical results show that bank risk-taking …

屬靈戰爭與旅遊 : 一個短期宣教活動的個案研究, Lai Ieng Lau

Theses & Dissertations

本研究試圖描繪香港細胞小組教會網絡短宣參加者的歷程及屬靈體驗，指出他們在旅途內的所見所聞受到了特定的宗教論述及旅遊操作所形塑和建構，而在此脈絡下產生的屬靈經驗可能不再純粹是神秘的、超自然和非物質的力量，相反它是可預期的文化產物，甚至不是本真(authentic)的屬靈經驗。然而，這種被建構的宗教及屬靈視野選擇性地把某些社會文化或問題 (如貧窮、種族主義、色情和異教文化)簡約歸類為邪惡他者的陰謀和控制，巧妙地隱藏或迴避了問題背後複雜而糾結的社會、經濟、政治及文化張力；同時鞏固了基督徒的身份認同及基督教的優越感，並相信基督教的價值觀獲得超越而且凌駕一切文化的合法性，然後將短宣內的屬靈經驗視為經歷神的重要證據。

此研究亦有助我們反思全球靈恩運動(Global Pentecostalism)的擴張，全球靈恩運動是近年基督教內增長最迅速的宗教運動，以屬靈恩賜、屬靈戰爭及繁榮神學(Prosperity Gospel)為主要特徵。除了依賴龐大的宗教媒體和超級教會等意識形態機器宣傳外，透過細緻的旅遊操作、宗教論述及靈性實踐，使短宣成為全球靈恩運動擴張的途徑之一，甚至讓這場源自美國的宗教運動轉化成本土的宗教內容。