Reflections through a local lens on Muto Ichiyo’s ideas of alternative practices: A Hong Kong perspective
Po-keung HUI and Kin-chi LAU
ABSTRACT This paper discusses the views of Muto Ichiyo, an important thinker and social activist in Japan and the Inter-Asian context, on alternative practices through reviewing the actual implementation of several community projects in Hong Kong and mainland China. Many of these community projects are informed by visions and notions of alternative practices of, say, a “Muto type”—constructing a new democratic experience, locally rooted and globally connected, which will contribute to a transformed and transformative socio-cultural structure/relation that is non-statist and non-capitalist in nature. Through scrutinizing the effectivity of these projects in local contexts, we hope to facilitate a dialogue with Muto on his notions of “transborder alliance of people/hope” and “alternative development”.
Keywords: Hope, alternative, people, alliance, People’s Plan for the 21st Century (PP21), rural reconstruction
Authors’ biographies
HUI Po-Keung 許寶強teaches at the Cultural Studies Department and is the Programme Director of the Master of Cultural Studies Programme at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. His main research interests are education and cultural studies, cultural economy, history of capitalism and markets, and alternative development. He is now working on several research and development projects on education reform in Hong Kong. He is the author of What Capitalism is Not (資本主義不是什麼),Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 2002, Shanghai Renmin Chu Banshe, 2007.
LAU Kin-Chi 劉健芝teaches at the Cultural Studies Department at Lingnan University. She is currently Vice President of World Forum for Alternatives, Board member of PeaceWomen Across the Globe, and Board member of Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA), a forum and network of activist scholars in Asia. She has edited/co-edited books including Globalizing Resistance;Shaping Our Future; China Reflected; Colours of Peace; Resurgent Patriarchies; Beyond the Financial Crisis; The Masked Knight; Subaltern Studies. She has been involved in various global projects such as the South South Forum (www.southsouthforum.org) and the Emerging 7 Countries (www.emergingcountries.org).