THESIS
2010
vi, 125 p. : ill. ; 30 cm
Abstract
According to the conventional literature, privatization was often carried out to minimize the control from trade unions or to weaken the oppositional forces. Indeed, such action had been disguised under rhetoric of economic performances and efficiencies. Setting aside the disputes and controversies whether the change of ownership indeed improves economic performance, recent research has started to assess the unintended consequences of privatization towards society....[
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According to the conventional literature, privatization was often carried out to minimize the control from trade unions or to weaken the oppositional forces. Indeed, such action had been disguised under rhetoric of economic performances and efficiencies. Setting aside the disputes and controversies whether the change of ownership indeed improves economic performance, recent research has started to assess the unintended consequences of privatization towards society.
In the case of Hong Kong, privatization did not have a strong political intension to weaken the oppositional forces. Rather, it is more a coalition between the state and the business sector. This kind of coalition involves the active retreat of state which in turns gives way for capital accumulation.
By using the case of the Link REIT, I would like address three questions. These questions are how privatization changes the organization structure and culture in public housing communities? Who are the actors behind to drive these changes? And how are these actors or affected people respond to these institutional changes?
By delimitating the experiences from the cleaning workers and family tenants, the changing structure and business culture in public housing communities were discussed. With these structural and cultural changes in the organizational level, negative social consequences of the privatization of The Link were results. These included the monopoly of capital in subcontracting system and occupation of chain stores, social exclusion for the poor from accessing the commercial services, and also the redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich. Apart from public housing residents, oppositions against The Link also came from social activists, non-government organizations, grassroots workers, family tenants, as well as members of District Council and Legislative Council. A wave of Anti-Link Movement was already started in the society.
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