A comparative study on the planning system of Hong Kong and the PRC, using Hong Kong and Guangzhou as case studies

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dick-sang, Philip Chan
Author(s):  
Cheng Chen

The studies of post-communist Russia and China have traditionally been dominated by single-case studies and within-region comparisons. This chapter explores why the CAS of post-communist Russia and China is difficult, why it is rare, and how it could yield significant and unique intellectual payoffs. The cross-regional comparative study of anti-corruption campaigns in contemporary Russia and China is used as an example in this chapter to argue that a well-matched and context-sensitive comparison could reveal significant divergence in the elite politics and institutional capacities of these regimes that would otherwise likely be obscured by single-case studies or studies restricted to one single geographical area such as “Eastern Europe” or “East Asia.” By breaking Russia and China out of their respective “regions,” the CAS perspective thus enables us to better capture the full range of existing diversity of post-communist authoritarianism.


Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Lawrence W.C. Lai ◽  
K.W. Chau ◽  
Stephen N.G. Davies ◽  
Locinda Kwan

BACKGROUND: Open plan or open space office has become increasingly popular but those who promote the concept selfdom refer to health studies or workers’ perceptions of a change in office layout towards an open space arrangement. OBJECTIVE: To review the literature on open plan or open space office layouts in terms of facilities management (FM) with users’ perception in mind and to obtain opinions of users of open space offices of for a better appreciation of the FM issues. METHODS: A literature search of research papers from 2007 in journals using the keywords “open plan office” and “open space office” plus “health”, first in the titles then in the text, was carried out. Thirty-two of those papers, accessible by the authors’ institutions, were consulted together with 5 other works in the Harvard Business Review. The review consulted but excluded papers and reports published or sponsored by commercial firms that were in favour of open space layouts. Case studies were conducted by face to face meetings in confidence with workers in the middle managements of twelve Hong Kong organisations known as friends to two of the authors. Problems as seen by staff are reported and discussed. RESULTS: The literature review reveals that apart from writing that promotes the use of an open plan office layout, a host of scientific works point to the problems of perceived dissatisfaction with such a layout, the nature of the dissatisfaction tending to depend on the actual design. Most workers interviewed disliked the new style open plan layouts, which points to the necessity of consulting workers when such changes are contemplated, as well as monitoring the results of the change once it is in place whether against workers’ wishes or with their support. There is a need for a number of facility arrangements in making a change to open plan that ensures that worker needs for proper lighting, privacy, and indoor health will be met. CONCLUSIONS: If the aim of a change to an open plan arrangement is to promote collegial communications in office, the study sheds light on the extent to which such arrangements may not in practice be suitable for achieving the aim. It follows that further, more specifically sociological studies of workers’ job satisfaction and emotional health in open plan office settings would be worth doing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-232
Author(s):  
Barry Sautman ◽  
Xinyi Xie

Many in Hong Kong voice concerns about the fate of Cantonese, including nativists (“localists”) and the general public. Guangzhou is seen as a harbinger of diminishing Cantonese in Hong Kong. News and commentaries paint a gloomy picture of Cantonese in Guangzhou. Yet rarely do we read about surveys on the range of Cantonese use and identity in Guangzhou. Neither do we see analyses on how the social context differences between Hong Kong and Guangzhou may have contributed to the two cities’ unique language situations. Our study delineates the Guangzhou and Hong Kong language situations, comparing mother tongues, ordinary languages, and language attitudes. Cantonese is unrivalled in Hong Kong and remains vital in Guangzhou. We put the two cities’ different use frequency and proficiency of Cantonese and Putonghua (“Mandarin”) in the sociocultural context of motivation and migration. We conclude that some claims of diminishing Cantonese are unsupported. We also address how likely it is that Cantonese will diminish or even be replaced in Hong Kong.


2015 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 1929-1937 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina O. Heidrich ◽  
Emely Jensen ◽  
Francisco Rebelo ◽  
Tiago Oliveira

ABSTRACT This article presents a comparative study among people with cerebral palsy and healthy controls, of various ages, using a Brain-computer Interface (BCI) device. The research is qualitative in its approach. Researchers worked with Observational Case Studies. People with cerebral palsy and healthy controls were evaluated in Portugal and in Brazil. The study aimed to develop a study for product evaluation in order to perceive whether people with cerebral palsy could interact with the computer and compare whether their performance is similar to that of healthy controls when using the Brain-computer Interface. Ultimately, it was found that there are no significant differences between people with cerebral palsy in the two countries, as well as between populations without cerebral palsy (healthy controls).


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