Rights and Urban Controversies in Hong Kong: From the Eastern and Western Perspectives

Description

This book examines the “ethics in relation to city and urbanism” by evaluating the strengths and limitations of rights as a conceptual tool from the comparative East–West perspective in resolving urban controversies (involving conflicts of rights between different classes, different groups within the present generation, present vs future generations, human vs animals, human vs plants and nature), thereby facilitating urban policy-making and good urban governance. This book adopts an interdisciplinary approach integrating political theory, ethics, urban studies, public policy, making applications of ethics and political philosophy to social sciences to examine controversial urban issues in the Hong Kong context.  It challenges the general conception that philosophy and ethics are detached from everyday life, with the philosophers engaging mainly in abstract intellectual pursuit and some of them even disdaining “pedestrian” applications of abstract thinking. This book makes applications of ethics and political philosophy to real-life urban contexts in Hong Kong, thereby trying to highlight the normative in order to throw new light to the general approach and strategy to deal with practical urban issues, facilitating “out-of-the-box” thinking in the field of housing and urban studies, stimulating scholars, researchers, and students in the fields, urban planners, urban managers, and other professionals as well as urban policy-makers. Contents 1 Ethics of Urbanism: Rights in Urban Controversies 1.1 Overview 1.2 Nature and Aims of the Book 1.3 Outline of the Book 1.3.1 Conflict of Rights in Urban Issues 1.3.2 Rights, Interest, and Well-Being of Human and Non-Human Entities References 2 Approaches to Human Rights: Concepts, Conceptions, and Controversies 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Discussion 2.2.1 The Concept of Human Rights 2.2.2 Human Rights in the Global and Cultural Contexts 2.2.3 Competing Conceptions of Human Rights 2.2.4 Human Rights and Ethics in Public Policy 2.3 Concluding Remarks References Part I Conflict of Rights in Urban Issues 3 Sub-Divided Units: Property Rights and Market Versus Right to Housing 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Discussion 3.2.1 Background 3.2.2 ‘Right to Housing’ in Relation to Sub-Divided Units 3.2.3 Property Rights, Ownership, Market and Related Ethics 3.2.4 Urban Governance–Any Way Out of the Housing Dilemmas? 3.3 Conclusion References 4 Urban Development and Land Controversies in Rural Hong Kong: An Indigenous Rights Perspective 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Discussion 4.2.1 International Perspectives on Indigeneity and Indigenous Rights 4.2.2 British Colonialism and the Making of Indigeneity in Hong Kong 4.2.3 Land and Indigenous Rights Controversies in the New Territories 4.2.4 Gender Discrimination in the Small House Policy 4.2.5 Indigenous Rights as a Controversy 4.2.6 Corruption and Collusion Controversies 4.3 Conclusion References 5 Should Heritage Preservation Trump Protection of Private Property Right? 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Discussion 5.2.1 Rights and Confucianism 5.2.2 Private Property Right from the Confucian Perspective 5.2.3 Heritage Preservation as a Right 5.2.4 Resolving the Conflicts Arising from Heritage Preservation: The Cases of King Yin Lei and Ho Tung Garden 5.3 Conclusion References 6 A Critical Assessment of the Discourse of Rights and Toleration with Reference to the Concept of ‘Gong Qi’: The Case of the Use of Public Space in the Mong Kok Pedestrian Zone 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Discussion 6.2.1 Busking in Mong Kok 6.2.2 What Is Public Space? 6.2.3 Different Approaches of Understanding Public Space 6.2.4 Wang Fuzhi’s Treatment of Desire and Kong Qi 6.3 Conclusion References Part II Rights, Interest and Well-being of Human and Non-human Entities 7 Analyzing the Conflict of Rights to Urban Space Between Humans and Stray Animals: From East and West Perspectives 7.1 Introduction 7.1.1 Approach 7.1.2 The Rationale for the Choice of Case Study 7.2 Discussion 7.2.1 The Problem of Stray Cats and Dogs in Hong Kong 7.2.2 Philosophical Approaches to Animal Ethics: From East and West Perspectives 7.2.3 A Comparison Between Buddhism, Utilitarianism and the Animal Rights Approach 7.2.4 A Proposed Solution to Stray Animals 7.3 Conclusion References 8 An Examination of the Multiple Ethical Approaches by Which the Worth of Urban Trees May Be Defended: The Case of Stonewall Trees in Hong Kong 8.1 Introduction 8.1.1 Stonewall Trees in Hong Kong: A Striking Example of the Conflict of Rights Between Human Agents and Urban Trees 8.2 Discussion 8.2.1 The Functional, Historical, and Cultural Roles of Trees 8.2.2 The Biocentric Perspective: Trees as Goal-Oriented Entities 8.2.3 The Holistic Turn: Trees as Part of the Ecological Whole 8.2.4 The Daoist Turn: Defending by not Contending 8.3 Conclusion References 9 Development Theories and the Rights of Nature: Natural Spaces and Human Development 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Discussion 9.2.1 The Aggregate Approach 9.2.2 The Human Development Approach 9.2.3 Nature and Human Development 9.2.4 Eastern and Western Perspectives on the Rights of Nature 9.2.5 The Case of Hong Kong 9.3 Conclusion References 10 Pursuing Unity or Creating Disunity? An East–West Complementary Approach to Urban Controversies Related to the Right to Environment 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Discussion 10.2.1 The Limitation of Political Liberalism and the Confucian Idea of TRHY 10.2.2 The Disunity Caused by the Unity of Heaven and Humanity 10.2.3 Two Possible Roles of TRHY 10.3 Conclusion References 11 Conclusion