Publications by SSPS scholars discuss public administration reform and sport in Hong Kong
Book covers of “Sport in Hong Kong: Culture, Identity, and Policy”, left, and “Handbook of Public Administration Reform”, right.
We are pleased to announce the release of two highly anticipated books contributed and written by scholars from the Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies (SSPS). They are the “Handbook of Public Administration Reform”, which includes two chapters by Professor Anthony B.L. Cheung, Advisor (Public Administration) with the department, and “Sport in Hong Kong: Culture, Identity, and Policy”, co-edited by Dr Lawrence Ho Ka-ki, an Assistant Professor at the department, and Dr Tobias Zuser.
Published in November 2023 by Edward Elgar Publishing, the “Handbook of Public Administration Reform” edited by Shaun Francis Goldfinch, is a comprehensive study that examines the complexities and challenges surrounding public administration reform. It explores the meaning and purpose of reform, its impact on society, and the interests it serves. This comparative study sheds new light on existing and emerging issues in the field of public administration, offering valuable insights and perspectives. The handbook will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars of public administration and management and of policy and politics. With practical applications, it will also prove vital to policy-makers concerned with public administration reform, alongside relevant civil servants, think tanks, and pressure groups.
Professor Anthony B.L. Cheung has authored two insightful chapters in this publication of twenty-three chapters. Professor Cheung's chapters contribute to the wider discussion on administrative reform and provide profound analyses and reflections on the administrative landscapes of Hong Kong and Singapore. You can find more information about the book at here.
Professor Cheung was formerly the Secretary for Transport and Housing of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (July 2012 – July 2017) and the President of the then Hong Kong Institute of Education (2008 – 2012). The institute was granted the university title and changed its name into The Education University of Hong Kong in May 2016.
Published by Peter Lang Pub Inc in January 2024, “Sport in Hong Kong: Culture, Identity, and Policy” is consisted of nine chapters by various authors. While Dr Ho and Dr Zuser co-edited the whole book, they also wrote its Introduction and Conclusion chapters. Additionally, Dr Zuser contributed a chapter on the development and policy of football in Hong Kong.
The book fills a gap in this understudied niche by offering an interdisciplinary inquiry that acknowledges the depth and width for sport as a global force that shapes local culture, identity, and politics. As such this publication accommodates perspectives across sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, policy studies, and history to offer both a rich and complementary account of sporting culture in Hong Kong’s socio-historical context.
In the past, Orientalist myths told through movies and advertisements have produced an idealised image of Hong Kong as a city of hybridity, a place where “East meets West,” with a futurist skyline that has inspired countless steampunk and sci-fi novels. However, the last few years have significantly changed the global perception of this Asian metropolis amidst the formation of a new geopolitical frontier. As the fifth volume of the Sport in East and Southeast Asian Societies series, the book is not so much a documentation of a peculiar sports system, but a timely discussion and analysis of Hong Kong as a postcolonial place in crisis mode.
Dr Lawrence Ho Ka-ki is an Assistant Professor at SSPS. His research interests include history and sociology of colonial and decolonised policing, public order management, and sports sociology. Dr Tobias Zuser is currently a lecturer at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University. His research on sporting culture in China and Hong Kong has been widely published, discussing issues of nationalism, identity, globalisation, as well as the intersections of sports policy and cultural policy.
