Hok Bun Ku
Biographic Data
| ID | 1727741 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Hok Bun Ku |
| GIVEN NAMES | Hok Bun |
| FAMILY NAME | Ku |
| SIGNATURE | KU H B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hong Kong Polytechnic University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2365-8182 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 171 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Promise-making with rural tourism: A temporal perspective on rural development in China
This article focuses on “not-yet successfully touristified villages” in rural China. While rural tourism has been on the rise resent years, many villages have not yet benefited from the tourism growth but mire in aborted or suspended projects. Through an ethnographic case study of a northern Chinese village, we reveal how the preparatory process of tourism has reshaped a village long before tourists or gentrifiers arrive. Conceptualizing this pro…
Transformative social work education through a joint MSW programme: From participatory action research to policy and practice innovation in China
In China, social work was reestablished in 1988. Despite the number of social work programmes increased very fast throughout the 1990s, there was a huge need for social work-trained educators. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Peking University launched the MSW (China) Programme in 2000 to create a critical mass of social work educators who would assume future leadership in social work development in mainland China. Participatory action re…
Practice research on social work responses to a community health crisis in Hong Kong’s public housing estates
This study explores social work responses to the Coronavirus disease 2019 community health crisis in the Hong Kong public rental housing estates community. By articulating the process in which social workers respond to community needs, this study explores the idea that the nature of community social work is habitual and formed by a series of purposive coping actions rather that deriving from plans and proposals. The habitual state of conducting c…
Professionalisation of social work in Asia: The Push and Pull of Global and Local Influences
Biopower, governmentality and the making of health inequities of migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong
Cross-border healthcare-seeking and utilization behaviours among ethnic minorities: Exploring the nexus of the perceived better option and public health concerns
Ethnic minorities in Hong Kong sought cross-border healthcare because of structural and cultural-religious issues. The surge of medical tourism from rich and developed countries to poor and developing countries may infringe upon the rights of residents in destination countries. To mitigate such negative impacts, policymakers of host countries should improve hospital infrastructure, as well as train and recruit more culturally sensitive healthcare…
Exploring discrimination, social acceptance, and its impact on the psychological well-being of older men who have sex with men: A cross-sectional study
The study highlights the impact of discrimination and social acceptance on the psychological well-being of older MSM. The findings suggest that interventions aimed at reducing discrimination and promoting social acceptance may improve the psychological well-being of older MSM. These results have important implications for healthcare providers and policymakers in developing strategies to promote social acceptance and reduce discrimination towards …
Theory and practice of social work of reconciliation (SWR) in building inclusive communities in Hong Kong
Aesthetic Governance and China's Rural Toilet Revolution
This article addresses aesthetic politics in the Chinese rural toilet revolution. Toilet retrofitting is conventionally regarded as an issue of sanitation improvement, but in the emerging trend of rural post-productivism transformation, toilets have become contested sites of aesthetic governance in rural development. Using the case of a village in Northern China, the authors show that, in order to beautify the rural environment, toilet identifica…
An ethnographic study on the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on indigenous people and their coping strategies in Bangladesh
The lived experience of wounded helpers: A phenomenological study of social workers working with suicidal cases in mental health settings in Hong Kong
This study explores the grief of social workers who experience the death of clients in community mental health settings. “The ten participants represented three occupational categories: social work administrators, senior social workers team leaders and clinical leaders), and novice and frontline social workers.” A phenomenological research approach was adopted, and semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the types of grief experience…
Word of Appreciation to Manuscript Reviewers
Word of Appreciation to Manuscript Reviewers." China Journal of Social Work, 16(1), pp. 114–115
From action to theory building: An action research of rural social work practice in China
In recent years, action research has gradually been accepted by social work educators and practitioners in Mainland China. Some have tried integrating action research into social work education and practice. However, many people only learn the form but do not seriously uphold the spirit of action research and understand its mission of knowledge building. Therefore, this article first introduces the key elements of participatory action research (P…
Word of Appreciation to Manuscript Reviewers
Covid-19 pandemic and social work responses in Chinese societies
The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a devastating impact on a global scale. Its impact has been not only on the health of citizens but also on different aspects of our living. In Hong Kong, we could
Word of Appreciation to Manuscript Reviewers
Rural revitalization, scholars, and the dynamics of the collective future in China
Rural development in the Chinese state's strategy has been a changing political-economic problematic. The state has practiced a strategic essentialism with regard to 'peasantry.' It has actively taken 'peasantry' as a temporary unifying master-category while at the same time working with the differences within the category for the long-term goal of transformation. The post-Mao contradiction, emphasizing the protection of the 'peasantry' while enc…
Re-emergence of social work in modern China: A perspective by Chinese and U.S. partners
In this article, we offer a perspective on the re-emergence of social work in China from the viewpoint of a longstanding and very productive partnership between Chinese and U.S. social work educators and researchers. We begin with a brief historical context, followed by a description of partnership development among Peking University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Washington University in St. Louis. To illustrate academic collaborations a…
The achievement and predicament of 30-year social work development in Chinese mainland
Social work and sustainable rural development: The practice of social economy in China
The impact of globalisation on local agriculture and food systems has brought issues such as food security and rural sustainability to the forefront of policy‐making in developing countries. In China, the restructuring of domestic agriculture and liberalisation of trade following accession to the World Trade Organization have led to the growing reliance on imported food and raised concerns for food self‐sufficiency and safety. Inspired by the con…
Serving the People, Building the Party: Social Organizations and Party Work in China’s Urban Villages
The reform era has been associated with the waning authority of the Chinese Communist Party in urban society. While existing studies have investigated the Party’s self-reinvention through the incorporation into its ranks of professional groups and the new socioeconomic elite, much less attention has been given to how the Party has rebuilt its presence in neighborhoods among urban residents and migrant communities. Drawing on a case study in Kunmi…
The predicament of social work development and the emergence of social work action/practice research in China
Action Research Journal’s seven quality choicepoints for action oriented research for transformations
Action Research Journal’s seven quality choicepoints for action oriented research for transformations
What is good action research: Quality choice points with a refreshed urgency
Refreshing our purpose with Action Research journal Our purpose since inception with this international, peer-reviewed journal is to offer a forum for participative, action-oriented inquiry into questions that matter-questions relevant to people in the conduct of their lives, that enable them to flourish in their organizations and communities, and that evince a deep concern for the wider ecology. Our purpose has not changed. The world around the …
When Foreign Domestic Helpers Care for and About Older People in Their Homes: I Am a Maid or a Friend
We examine the lived experiences of foreign domestic helpers (FDH) working with community-dwelling older people in Hong Kong. Unstructured interviews were conducted with 11 female FDHs, and thematically analyzed. The theme inescapable functioning commodity represented the embodied commodification of FDHs to be functional for older people in home care. Another theme, destined reciprocity of companionship , highlighted the FDHs' capacity to commit …
Rural revitalization, scholars, and the dynamics of the collective future in China
Rural development in the Chinese state's strategy has been a changing political-economic problematic. The state has practiced a strategic essentialism with regard to 'peasantry.' It has actively taken 'peasantry' as a temporary unifying master-category while at the same time working with the differences within the category for the long-term goal of transformation. The post-Mao contradiction, emphasizing the protection of the 'peasantry' while enc…
China's soybean crisis: The Logic of Modernization and Its Discontents
Lester Brown sounded an alarm in 1995: who will feed China? Against this backdrop, this contribution examines China's dramatic turn from having been a soybean net exporter, up until the mid-1990s, to being the biggest importer of genetically modified (GM) soybeans, since 2000. With China's growing soybean imports, domestic soybean production has experienced a drastic fall, creating an outcry about a ‘soybean crisis’ in China. This paper examines …
Body, dress and cultural exclusion: Experiences of Pakistani women in ‘global’ Hong Kong
Underneath a veneer of racial harmony and acceptance, racial discrimination is widespread at many different levels of life in Hong Kong, the so-called ‘global city’. For decades, some minority communities have lived with subtle but institutionalized and cultural discrimination permeating their existence. In recent years, social exclusion has been one of the important themes in policy debates in Hong Kong. It is increasingly recognized that there …
The predicament of social work development and the emergence of social work action/practice research in China
Happiness being like a blooming flower: An action research of rural social work in an ethnic minority community of Yunnan Province, PRC
The effects of rural reform and China’s integration into the global capitalist market have increased the vulnerability of the rural poor to financial hardship, loss of cultural identity, and other deprivations. In response to this situation, we initiated a pilot action research project in 2005 in an ethnic minority community in the Yunnan province of China. It encouraged local women to form a handicraft group to preserve and develop indigenous cu…
What is good action research: Quality choice points with a refreshed urgency
Refreshing our purpose with Action Research journal Our purpose since inception with this international, peer-reviewed journal is to offer a forum for participative, action-oriented inquiry into questions that matter-questions relevant to people in the conduct of their lives, that enable them to flourish in their organizations and communities, and that evince a deep concern for the wider ecology. Our purpose has not changed. The world around the …
Serving the People, Building the Party: Social Organizations and Party Work in China’s Urban Villages
The reform era has been associated with the waning authority of the Chinese Communist Party in urban society. While existing studies have investigated the Party’s self-reinvention through the incorporation into its ranks of professional groups and the new socioeconomic elite, much less attention has been given to how the Party has rebuilt its presence in neighborhoods among urban residents and migrant communities. Drawing on a case study in Kunmi…
Action Research Journal’s seven quality choicepoints for action oriented research for transformations
Action Research Journal’s seven quality choicepoints for action oriented research for transformations
Rural–Urban Alliance’ as a new model for post-disaster social work intervention in community reconstruction: The case in Sichuan, China
On 12 May 2008, a huge earthquake struck Wenchuan county in Sichuan province, China. Since that time, we have worked together with the local community, implementing an alternative model of community reconstruction. Our ‘rural–urban alliance’ is an action research project devoted to post-disaster community rebuilding, which not only restores local livelihoods but also creates sustainable economic development. This article examines the role of soci…
Making habitable space together with female Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong: An interdisciplinary participatory action research project
When women from mainland China are newly arrived in Hong Kong, their first difficulty is usually environmental stress. Their socio-economic situation often limits their ability to express their expectations related to their living space. In order to enable the women to voice their views and become participants in urban planning, our research group adopted interdisciplinary participatory action research, including non-participant observation, in-d…
Green social work and its implications for social development in China
Green social work has been significant in introducing new issues into environmental debates and increasing its centrality to social work practice. These have included: the mainstreaming of environmental considerations; a widening of the theoretical and practice base to ensure that social and environmental justice are considered integral to any environmental involvement by social workers; highlighting the need to think of innovative approaches to …
Not only Eating Together: Space and Green Social Work Intervention in a Hazard-Affected Area in Ya’an, Sichuan of China
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Lushan county of Ya’an city, Sichuan Province, China, on 20 April 2013. The Lushan earthquake damage is less than the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake’s, where 70,000 houses collapsed and 2 million people across nineteen prefectures and 115 counties of Sichuan province were affected. Temple Village (fictitious name), an old village in S township, was chosen as an intervention site. As most young adults went to work in the c…
Social work and sustainable rural development: The practice of social economy in China
The impact of globalisation on local agriculture and food systems has brought issues such as food security and rural sustainability to the forefront of policy‐making in developing countries. In China, the restructuring of domestic agriculture and liberalisation of trade following accession to the World Trade Organization have led to the growing reliance on imported food and raised concerns for food self‐sufficiency and safety. Inspired by the con…
Social work in disaster intervention: Accounts from the grounds of Sichuan
Natural disasters are a regular feature of China. On 12 May 2008, an 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan province, a mountainous region in western China, in which nearly 70,000 people died, 18
The achievement and predicament of 30-year social work development in Chinese mainland
Elderly people as “apocalyptic demography”? A study of the life stories of older people in Hong Kong born in the 1930s
Designing development: A case study of community economy in Pingzhai, Yunnan Province, in PRC
One of the main challenges confronted by the Chinese government is rural poverty. However, despite efforts of rural reform, China's rapid integration into the global capitalist economy has in fact made the rural poor more vulnerable, suffering from not only financial hardships, but also from other forms of deprivation such as the loss of cultural identity. Acknowledging such rural predicaments, in 2005, a pilot project aiming at overcoming rural …
Theory and practice of social work of reconciliation (SWR) in building inclusive communities in Hong Kong
Aesthetic Governance and China's Rural Toilet Revolution
This article addresses aesthetic politics in the Chinese rural toilet revolution. Toilet retrofitting is conventionally regarded as an issue of sanitation improvement, but in the emerging trend of rural post-productivism transformation, toilets have become contested sites of aesthetic governance in rural development. Using the case of a village in Northern China, the authors show that, in order to beautify the rural environment, toilet identifica…
From action to theory building: An action research of rural social work practice in China
In recent years, action research has gradually been accepted by social work educators and practitioners in Mainland China. Some have tried integrating action research into social work education and practice. However, many people only learn the form but do not seriously uphold the spirit of action research and understand its mission of knowledge building. Therefore, this article first introduces the key elements of participatory action research (P…
Covid-19 pandemic and social work responses in Chinese societies
The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a devastating impact on a global scale. Its impact has been not only on the health of citizens but also on different aspects of our living. In Hong Kong, we could
Re-emergence of social work in modern China: A perspective by Chinese and U.S. partners
In this article, we offer a perspective on the re-emergence of social work in China from the viewpoint of a longstanding and very productive partnership between Chinese and U.S. social work educators and researchers. We begin with a brief historical context, followed by a description of partnership development among Peking University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Washington University in St. Louis. To illustrate academic collaborations a…
China in a new age: Some remarks for social work in China
In China, people are used to naming a time period after the surname of its political leader(s), such as the Mao era, Deng era, Jiang era, and Hu-Wen era. The 18th National Congress of the Communist
Guangzhou social workers in Yingxiu: A case study of social work intervention in the aftermath of the Sichuan 5.12 earthquake in China
The most devastating effects of the Sichuan 5.12 earthquake occurred in Yingxiu, where Guangzhou social workers were sent to deal with the aftermath. In this paper, we describe our experience working in the post-earthquake community and the theoretical approach we adopted to realize our objectives. We also outline the challenges and opportunities of the social work profession in the field of disaster management. We argue that social workers in Ch…
Body, dress and cultural exclusion: Experiences of Pakistani women in ‘global’ Hong Kong
Underneath a veneer of racial harmony and acceptance, racial discrimination is widespread at many different levels of life in Hong Kong, the so-called ‘global city’. For decades, some minority communities have lived with subtle but institutionalized and cultural discrimination permeating their existence. In recent years, social exclusion has been one of the important themes in policy debates in Hong Kong. It is increasingly recognized that there …
Making habitable space together with female Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong: An interdisciplinary participatory action research project
When women from mainland China are newly arrived in Hong Kong, their first difficulty is usually environmental stress. Their socio-economic situation often limits their ability to express their expectations related to their living space. In order to enable the women to voice their views and become participants in urban planning, our research group adopted interdisciplinary participatory action research, including non-participant observation, in-d…
Guangzhou social workers in Yingxiu: A case study of social work intervention in the aftermath of the Sichuan 5.12 earthquake in China
The most devastating effects of the Sichuan 5.12 earthquake occurred in Yingxiu, where Guangzhou social workers were sent to deal with the aftermath. In this paper, we describe our experience working in the post-earthquake community and the theoretical approach we adopted to realize our objectives. We also outline the challenges and opportunities of the social work profession in the field of disaster management. We argue that social workers in Ch…
Social work in disaster intervention: Accounts from the grounds of Sichuan
Natural disasters are a regular feature of China. On 12 May 2008, an 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan province, a mountainous region in western China, in which nearly 70,000 people died, 18
Gendered suffering: Married Miao women's narratives on domestic violence in southwest China
This paper is based on our oral testimonial projects in Guizhou province in Southwest China. Since 1999, we have employed oral testimony as one of the community development strategies and methods to study the life histories of Miao ethnic minority women in China's impoverished rural regions. By employing this method, we aim to empower the marginalized Miao women, and help them explore their hidden voices and learn about their life experiences, th…
China at the crossroads: Social economy as the new way of development
Designing development: A case study of community economy in Pingzhai, Yunnan Province, in PRC
One of the main challenges confronted by the Chinese government is rural poverty. However, despite efforts of rural reform, China's rapid integration into the global capitalist economy has in fact made the rural poor more vulnerable, suffering from not only financial hardships, but also from other forms of deprivation such as the loss of cultural identity. Acknowledging such rural predicaments, in 2005, a pilot project aiming at overcoming rural …
Happiness being like a blooming flower: An action research of rural social work in an ethnic minority community of Yunnan Province, PRC
The effects of rural reform and China’s integration into the global capitalist market have increased the vulnerability of the rural poor to financial hardship, loss of cultural identity, and other deprivations. In response to this situation, we initiated a pilot action research project in 2005 in an ethnic minority community in the Yunnan province of China. It encouraged local women to form a handicraft group to preserve and develop indigenous cu…
Social work for change
Introduction to the special issue on lifelong asset building
China in a new age: Some remarks for social work in China
In China, people are used to naming a time period after the surname of its political leader(s), such as the Mao era, Deng era, Jiang era, and Hu-Wen era. The 18th National Congress of the Communist
The action research practice of urban planning an example from Hong Kong
Social Economy in China and the World
Thirty years of economic transformation have changed China and turned it into one of the major players in the global capitalist economy. However, China's economic growth has generated rising problems in inequality, alienation, and sustainability. The crises that gave birth to experiments in social or solidarity economy are the "agrarian crises" of the late 1990s, and the continuous migration and labor conflicts, both being problems of systemic su…
Elderly people as “apocalyptic demography”? A study of the life stories of older people in Hong Kong born in the 1930s
Rural–Urban Alliance’ as a new model for post-disaster social work intervention in community reconstruction: The case in Sichuan, China
On 12 May 2008, a huge earthquake struck Wenchuan county in Sichuan province, China. Since that time, we have worked together with the local community, implementing an alternative model of community reconstruction. Our ‘rural–urban alliance’ is an action research project devoted to post-disaster community rebuilding, which not only restores local livelihoods but also creates sustainable economic development. This article examines the role of soci…
China's soybean crisis: The Logic of Modernization and Its Discontents
Lester Brown sounded an alarm in 1995: who will feed China? Against this backdrop, this contribution examines China's dramatic turn from having been a soybean net exporter, up until the mid-1990s, to being the biggest importer of genetically modified (GM) soybeans, since 2000. With China's growing soybean imports, domestic soybean production has experienced a drastic fall, creating an outcry about a ‘soybean crisis’ in China. This paper examines …
Green social work and its implications for social development in China
Green social work has been significant in introducing new issues into environmental debates and increasing its centrality to social work practice. These have included: the mainstreaming of environmental considerations; a widening of the theoretical and practice base to ensure that social and environmental justice are considered integral to any environmental involvement by social workers; highlighting the need to think of innovative approaches to …
When Foreign Domestic Helpers Care for and About Older People in Their Homes: I Am a Maid or a Friend
We examine the lived experiences of foreign domestic helpers (FDH) working with community-dwelling older people in Hong Kong. Unstructured interviews were conducted with 11 female FDHs, and thematically analyzed. The theme inescapable functioning commodity represented the embodied commodification of FDHs to be functional for older people in home care. Another theme, destined reciprocity of companionship , highlighted the FDHs' capacity to commit …
State, profession, and religion: Reflecting on spirituality and indigenous social work in China in the Yushu Earthquake Relief
On April 14, 2010, a massive earthquake measuring 7.1Ms struck the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. Its scale notwithstanding, it has received much less national and international attention than the also immense Wenchun quake of 2008 in Sichun Province. This field report discusses the contribution of religion and spirituality in postdisaster relief in Yushu. It also calls for critical reflection on the issue of homoge…
Not only Eating Together: Space and Green Social Work Intervention in a Hazard-Affected Area in Ya’an, Sichuan of China
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Lushan county of Ya’an city, Sichuan Province, China, on 20 April 2013. The Lushan earthquake damage is less than the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake’s, where 70,000 houses collapsed and 2 million people across nineteen prefectures and 115 counties of Sichuan province were affected. Temple Village (fictitious name), an old village in S township, was chosen as an intervention site. As most young adults went to work in the c…
What is good action research: Quality choice points with a refreshed urgency
Refreshing our purpose with Action Research journal Our purpose since inception with this international, peer-reviewed journal is to offer a forum for participative, action-oriented inquiry into questions that matter-questions relevant to people in the conduct of their lives, that enable them to flourish in their organizations and communities, and that evince a deep concern for the wider ecology. Our purpose has not changed. The world around the …
Re-emergence of social work in modern China: A perspective by Chinese and U.S. partners
In this article, we offer a perspective on the re-emergence of social work in China from the viewpoint of a longstanding and very productive partnership between Chinese and U.S. social work educators and researchers. We begin with a brief historical context, followed by a description of partnership development among Peking University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Washington University in St. Louis. To illustrate academic collaborations a…
The achievement and predicament of 30-year social work development in Chinese mainland
Social work and sustainable rural development: The practice of social economy in China
The impact of globalisation on local agriculture and food systems has brought issues such as food security and rural sustainability to the forefront of policy‐making in developing countries. In China, the restructuring of domestic agriculture and liberalisation of trade following accession to the World Trade Organization have led to the growing reliance on imported food and raised concerns for food self‐sufficiency and safety. Inspired by the con…
Serving the People, Building the Party: Social Organizations and Party Work in China’s Urban Villages
The reform era has been associated with the waning authority of the Chinese Communist Party in urban society. While existing studies have investigated the Party’s self-reinvention through the incorporation into its ranks of professional groups and the new socioeconomic elite, much less attention has been given to how the Party has rebuilt its presence in neighborhoods among urban residents and migrant communities. Drawing on a case study in Kunmi…
Political science (31 works) · Sociology (29 works) · China (20 works) · Economic growth (20 works) · Economics (20 works) · Social Work Education and Practice (20 works) · Social Work (17 works) · Engineering (13 works) · Geography (13 works) · Law (12 works)