Speakers Brian Wong

Date 17.11.2023

Time HKT 2:30pm - 3:45pm

Location YIA LT7

In recent years, Hong Kong's urban planning strategies have centred on supporting large-scale (re)development projects and accelerating urbanization, with the stated intention to drive economic growth and improve citizens’ well-being. However, these strategies have been increasingly seen by critics for their alignment with a neoliberal approach to development, which exacerbates longstanding urban problems instead of delivering promised benefits.

Largely driven by capital and developer interests, this mode of development has been deemed to encourage speculative housing practices, which in turn aggravate multi-scalar urban conflicts that take away citizen’s right to the city. These problems range from the erosion of the foundation of the public housing system, displacement of marginalised communities under a market-driven urban renewal strategy, and the proliferation of substandard living spaces both in the formal and informal housing sectors.

This talk will discuss the meanings of “the right to the city” in Hong Kong’s context and suggests that in order to reclaim such right, more commitment to local research is imperative for elucidating how planning, design, and development are intertwined.

About the Speaker:

Brian Wong has been a researcher at Liber Research Community since 2017. With a background in geography and public policy, his work is concerned with advocating for a more equitable society with a focus on urban and rural development. Together with his colleagues in Liber, he has published research findings that include brownfields, nano-flats, small house policy, mega infrastructure and urban redevelopment projects.