CCGL9026 Global Issues

Think Global, Act Local: You, Hong Kong,
and the World

This course is under the thematic cluster(s) of:

  • Sustaining Cities, Cultures, and the Earth (SCCE)

SDG-09
SDG-11
SDG-13
Sustainable Development Goals

Timetable for Lectures
Non-Permissible Combination:
CCGL9002 Hong Kong Culture in the Context of Globalization

Course Description

The slogan, “Think global, act local,” has become a catch phrase, as global connections and interdependencies have vastly expanded and the importance of local engagement increasingly recognized. Given the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of the contemporary world, it is important for each of us to understand how we are linked to the multitude of people and places in it, and what impacts our actions have on them.

In this course, we focus on global mega-trends from economic and environmental perspectives (e.g., economic globalization and climate change) and will discuss how the global trends have reshaped local economies and what local responses would be necessary in the face of such new environments. We will then further extend our discussion to examine how cities fare in a globalized world. For example, has Hong Kong contributed to promoting global economic and environment changes? Also, how may Hong Kong in turn be affected by them? We will use related theories to understand the changes in our lives in Hong Kong and in the world. Students who have taken the course should be able to answer both ‘big’ questions related to the global trend as well as seemingly ‘simple’ questions about everyday life.

[Two field trips will be arranged during Reading Week, and students must participate in one of them. Each field trip will be completed within three hours, including round-trip transport time between campus and the destination.]

Course Learning Outcomes

On completing the course, students will be able to:

  1. Understand the general character of globalization, and the relationship between global processes and local places
  2. Understand how economic, spatial, historical, socio-cultural, environmental and institutional forces and processes connect cities to the wider world.
  3. Appreciate different theoretical frameworks for reading the global–local relationship — including those drawn from urban studies, geography, sociology, political economy and cultural studies — and recognise their limits.
  4. Evaluate evidence and its sources critically, including generative AI, and consider contested issues from more than one perspective.
  5. Initiate and communicate informed local action in response to globally produced issues.

Offer Semester and Day of Teaching

First semester (Wed)

Study Load

Activities Number of hours
Lectures 24
Tutorials 12
Reading / Self-study 60
Assessment: Fieldtrip reflection 10
Assessment: Individual assignment 14
Assessment: Group project 20
Total: 140

Assessment: 100% coursework

Assessment Tasks Weighting
Class participation 10
Reflection writing 30
Individual assessment: Written opinion piece  30
Group project 30

Required Reading

Books and book chapters:

  • Abbas, M. A. (1997). Hong Kong: Culture and the politics of disappearance. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. [Chap. 1] 
  • Chu, C. L. (2022). Building colonial Hong Kong: Speculative development and segregation in the city. London: Routledge. [Selected chapter] 
  • Cowen, D. (2014). The deadly life of logistics: Mapping violence in global trade. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. [Introduction and Chap. 1] 
  • Hung, H.-F. (2022). City on the edge: Hong Kong under Chinese rule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Introduction and Chap. 1] 
  • Mathews, G. (2011). Ghetto at the center of the world: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Chap. 1] 
  • Robertson, R. (1995). Glocalization: Time–space and homogeneity–heterogeneity. In M. Featherstone, S. Lash & R. Robertson (Eds.), Global modernities (pp. 25–44). London: Sage. 
  • Sassen, S. (2001). The global city: New York, London, Tokyo (2nd ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [Introduction] 

Journal articles:

  • Cheng, E. W., & Tong, K.-L. (2025). Variegated city-region governance: Centralised design, localised implementation and asymmetric integration in China’s Greater Bay Area. Territory, Politics, Governance, 13(5), 716–736. From https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2025.2492189 
  • Chiu, S. W. K., & Lui, T.-L. (2004). Testing the global city–social polarisation thesis: Hong Kong since the 1990s. Urban Studies, 41(10), 1863–1888. From https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098042000256297 
  • Forrest, R., & Hirayama, Y. (2015). The financialisation of the social project: Embedded liberalism, neoliberalism and home ownership. Urban Studies, 52(2), 233–244. From https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098014528394 
  • Forrest, R., La Grange, A., & Yip, N.-M. (2004). Hong Kong as a global city? Social distance and spatial differentiation. Urban Studies, 41(1), 207–227. 
  • Forrest, R., & Xian, S. (2018). Accommodating discontent: Youth, conflict and the housing question in Hong Kong. Housing Studies, 33(1), 1–17. From https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2017.1342775 
  • Yip, N.-M., La Grange, A., & Forrest, R. (2009). Making space: Residential trajectories in Hong Kong. Urban Geography, 30(7), 756–778. From https://doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.30.7.756

Course Co-ordinator and Teacher(s)

Course Co-ordinator Contact
Professor Q. He
Department of Urban Planning and Design, Faculty of Architecture		 Email: qionghe@hku.hk
Teacher(s) Contact
Professor Q. He
Department of Urban Planning and Design, Faculty of Architecture		 Email: qionghe@hku.hk