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This book proposes an alternative approach to understanding development and discusses the possibilities of alternative development in the age of global capitalism from a socio-cultural perspective. Tracing the development of Mui Wo, a rural town on the outskirts of Hong Kong, for more than a decade, it explores the factors that have allowed it to stand apart from the metropolis and follow a path of development that is distinct from the rest of Hong Kong. It also discusses how a place and its people, with their own time-space conceptions, respond to the changes prompted by the exigencies of global capitalism. The book goes beyond institutional concerns and focuses on the daily life of ordinary people. It identifies the forces underlying globalisation, addresses what happens when such forces interact with local ones, and explores the resultant diversions and diversifications. The book is an invitation to all those who are interested in reflecting on heterogeneity and diversity amidst the impulses of globalisation.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: Alternative Development in the Age of Global Capitalism.- Chapter 2: Two Tales of a City.- Chapter 3: Techniques of Going Slow: Cycling in Mui Wo.- Chapter 4: Taking Care of Our Own Waste.- Chapter 5: All Roads Lead to Development, or How Small Paths Lead Us Home.- Chapter 6: Whose Development? Transnational Capitalism and Homogenisation of Space.- Conclusion: The Landscape.
About the author
Kin-Ling Tang received her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Cultural Studies from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. This book originated from her dissertation, which was based on a six-year research in the rural town of Mui Wo situated on Lantau, the biggest outlying island of Hong Kong. Prior to her PhD, Tang obtained a master’s degree from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris in France, and a master’s degree in Translation and Interpretation from City University of Hong Kong. Triliterate in Chinese (Putonghua and Cantonese), English and French, she is an experienced writer, editor and translator. She is currently Lecturer at the Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies of The Education University of Hong Kong. Her research interests lie in cultural studies, development, globalisation and politics of translation. Her latest project investigates how the Chinese translation of Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities contributes to localism discourses in Hong Kong.
Summary
This book proposes an alternative approach to understanding development and discusses the possibilities of alternative development in the age of global capitalism from a socio-cultural perspective. Tracing the development of Mui Wo, a rural town on the outskirts of Hong Kong, for more than a decade, it explores the factors that have allowed it to stand apart from the metropolis and follow a path of development that is distinct from the rest of Hong Kong. It also discusses how a place and its people, with their own time-space conceptions, respond to the changes prompted by the exigencies of global capitalism. The book goes beyond institutional concerns and focuses on the daily life of ordinary people. It identifies the forces underlying globalisation, addresses what happens when such forces interact with local ones, and explores the resultant diversions and diversifications. The book is an invitation to all those who are interested in reflecting on heterogeneity and diversity amidst the impulses of globalisation.
