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

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 6 1 Ethics of Urbanism: Rights in Urban Controversies 8 1.1 Overview 8 1.2 Nature and Aims of the Book 11 1.3 Outline of the Book 13 1.3.1 Conflict of Rights in Urban Issues 13 1.3.2 Rights, Interest, and Well-Being of Human and Non-Human Entities 14 References 16 2 Approaches to Human Rights: Concepts, Conceptions, and Controversies 17 2.1 Introduction 17 2.2 Discussion 18 2.2.1 The Concept of Human Rights 18 2.2.2 Human Rights in the Global and Cultural Contexts 20 2.2.3 Competing Conceptions of Human Rights 25 2.2.4 Human Rights and Ethics in Public Policy 30 2.3 Concluding Remarks 32 References 33 Part I Conflict of Rights in Urban Issues 35 3 Sub-Divided Units: Property Rights and Market Versus Right to Housing 36 3.1 Introduction 36 3.2 Discussion 38 3.2.1 Background 38 3.2.2 ‘Right to Housing’ in Relation to Sub-Divided Units 40 3.2.3 Property Rights, Ownership, Market and Related Ethics 44 3.2.4 Urban Governance–Any Way Out of the Housing Dilemmas? 48 3.3 Conclusion 51 References 52 4 Urban Development and Land Controversies in Rural Hong Kong: An Indigenous Rights Perspective 54 4.1 Introduction 54 4.2 Discussion 56 4.2.1 International Perspectives on Indigeneity and Indigenous Rights 56 4.2.2 British Colonialism and the Making of Indigeneity in Hong Kong 59 4.2.3 Land and Indigenous Rights Controversies in the New Territories 63 4.2.4 Gender Discrimination in the Small House Policy 64 4.2.5 Indigenous Rights as a Controversy 67 4.2.6 Corruption and Collusion Controversies 69 4.3 Conclusion 70 References 71 5 Should Heritage Preservation Trump Protection of Private Property Right? 73 5.1 Introduction 73 5.2 Discussion 75 5.2.1 Rights and Confucianism 75 5.2.2 Private Property Right from the Confucian Perspective 81 5.2.3 Heritage Preservation as a Right 84 5.2.4 Resolving the Conflicts Arising from Heritage Preservation: The Cases of King Yin Lei and Ho Tung Garden 87 5.3 Conclusion 93 References 94 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 96 6.1 Introduction 96 6.2 Discussion 97 6.2.1 Busking in Mong Kok 97 6.2.2 What Is Public Space? 99 6.2.3 Different Approaches of Understanding Public Space 100 6.2.4 Wang Fuzhi’s Treatment of Desire and Kong Qi 107 6.3 Conclusion 109 References 109 Part II Rights, Interest and Well-being of Human and Non-human Entities 111 7 Analyzing the Conflict of Rights to Urban Space Between Humans and Stray Animals: From East and West Perspectives 112 7.1 Introduction 112 7.1.1 Approach 113 7.1.2 The Rationale for the Choice of Case Study 113 7.2 Discussion 114 7.2.1 The Problem of Stray Cats and Dogs in Hong Kong 114 7.2.2 Philosophical Approaches to Animal Ethics: From East and West Perspectives 116 7.2.3 A Comparison Between Buddhism, Utilitarianism and the Animal Rights Approach 121 7.2.4 A Proposed Solution to Stray Animals 125 7.3 Conclusion 129 References 129 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 131 8.1 Introduction 131 8.1.1 Stonewall Trees in Hong Kong: A Striking Example of the Conflict of Rights Between Human Agents and Urban Trees 132 8.2 Discussion 135 8.2.1 The Functional, Historical, and Cultural Roles of Trees 135 8.2.2 The Biocentric Perspective: Trees as Goal-Oriented Entities 138 8.2.3 The Holistic Turn: Trees as Part of the Ecological Whole 142 8.2.4 The Daoist Turn: Defending by not Contending 146 8.3 Conclusion 152 References 153 9 Development Theories and the Rights of Nature: Natural Spaces and Human Development 156 9.1 Introduction 156 9.2 Discussion 158 9.2.1 The Aggregate Approach 158 9.2.2 The Human Development Approach 160 9.2.3 Nature and Human Development 163 9.2.4 Eastern and Western Perspectives on the Rights of Nature 168 9.2.5 The Case of Hong Kong 169 9.3 Conclusion 173 References 173 10 Pursuing Unity or Creating Disunity? An East–West Complementary Approach to Urban Controversies Related to the Right to Environment 175 10.1 Introduction 176 10.2 Discussion 178 10.2.1 The Limitation of Political Liberalism and the Confucian Idea of TRHY 178 10.2.2 The Disunity Caused by the Unity of Heaven and Humanity 180 10.2.3 Two Possible Roles of TRHY 186 10.3 Conclusion 190 References 191 11 Conclusion 194