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Article
Publication date: 3 May 2016

Karen Joe Laidler and Maggy Lee

397

Abstract

Details

Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, vol. 12 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1871-2673

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2016

Karen Joe Laidler and Maggy Lee

This paper, aims to contribute to the wider project of understanding the production of knowledge about crime and justice and, “to cultivate and sustain a reflexive awareness about…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper, aims to contribute to the wider project of understanding the production of knowledge about crime and justice and, “to cultivate and sustain a reflexive awareness about the conditions under which such knowledge is (or is not) produced” (Loader and Sparks, 2012, p. 6). In reviewing the core issues and concerns about crime and control from the 1980s as articulated in these research dissertations, the authors seek to be self-reflexive about academic criminology as a field of enquiry in Hong Kong.

Design/methodology/approach

In this research, 209 dissertations, completed between 1988 and 2015, are categorized on the basis of the main subject or theme of investigation carried out by each of the research paper.

Findings and originality/value

This discussion is among the first and few attempts to look at the development of criminology in the Hong Kong China region and draws from the unique perspectives of practitioners – those working on the front lines – in their attempts to understand crime and its control with a criminological imagination.

Details

Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, vol. 12 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1871-2673

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2016

Tsz Yiu Terry Wan, Tsi Huen Tristan Chiew, Tsz Pan Harold Cheung, Felix Kar Yue Wong, Ching Tsoi and Karen Joe Laidler

The purpose of this study is to gain an “insider” understanding of contemporary methods and operations in parallel trading in the North District.

1604

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to gain an “insider” understanding of contemporary methods and operations in parallel trading in the North District.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing from in-depth interviews and field observations, we explore how this demand has led to two major consequences.

Findings

First, contemporary parallel trading has resulted in the rise of an organized system with coordinated roles and a range of workers moving in concert colloquially understood as the ant-moving-home (“螞蟻搬家” or “maangai bungaa”) approach. Second, the demand for parallel goods has led to alterations in the border landscape disturbances to daily order, shortages of daily goods and rising prices which, in turn, have led to organized protests around political identity and new challenges for policing the border.

Research limitations/implications

Our objective is to gain an “insider” understanding of contemporary methods and operations in parallel trading in the North District. A second limitation is the problem of generalization. Given the relatively small number of interviews and limited time for field observations, this study cannot provide a generalized account of the operation of the grey economy in the North District.

Originality/value

This article has drawn from several data sources to construct a holistic understanding of parallel trading and the associated public disorder in the North District. While parallel trading exists in many other countries, the situation in Hong Kong is somewhat distinct, in part, because the border trading site involves “one country but two systems” and accordingly is associated with other problems in relation to public security, social disturbance and identity conflict. These newly emerged issues on policing, not covered in this study, are important to future research.

Details

Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, vol. 12 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1871-2673

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2016

Eugene McLaughlin

The purpose of this paper is to offer an insider account of the establishment of Hong Kong University (HKU’s) Master of Social Sciences in Criminology.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to offer an insider account of the establishment of Hong Kong University (HKU’s) Master of Social Sciences in Criminology.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is biographical in approach, based on the author’s recollections and departmental documentation relating to the establishment of the MSocSc criminology degree.

Findings

The author argues that for all the practical complications, a distinctive criminological tradition was forged in the early years that has had a lasting influence. The paper concludes by considering the challenges faced by criminology in contemporary Hong Kong.

Originality/value

The paper provides an account of the origins and development of academic criminology in Hong Kong.

Details

Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, vol. 12 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1871-2673

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2020

Xuan NIU

This paper aims to understand the role that money plays in polygamous marriages among the Hui ethnic group in Northwest China.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to understand the role that money plays in polygamous marriages among the Hui ethnic group in Northwest China.

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducted in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observations based on snowball sampling of individuals who voluntarily agreed to participate from June to December 2010, and during the summer of 2011, in Qinghai in Northwest China. Follow-up interviews and observations were conducted in 2015.

Findings

This study examines how love and money intersect and work together to sustain the participants’ polygamous marriages. The study concludes that material desires unite love with money to make love consumable. With the help of money, love between the sexes is transformed into desirable consumption through economic activities associated with leisure, gift giving and religious beliefs to articulate individualism

Originality/value

This study is the first to explore money’s role in the experience of polygamy among the Hui ethnic group in China.

Details

Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1871-2673

Keywords

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