Written evidence (CCE0188) given at the House of Lords Citizenship and Civic Engagement Committee

Our submission answers questions 4, 5 and 6 set out by the commission. Our expertise in researching younger people’s political and civic activity leads us to make a set of clear recommendations at the end of this document which we hope the commission will take forward. This submission sets out key issues affecting younger people and formal political engagement and makes a strong case for lowering the age to vote to 16. We also make the case that the inquiry should avoid supporting compulsory voting aimed at younger people due to a set of potentially damaging consequences. We also ask the inquiry to recommend introducing stronger local and project based KS2 citizenship and political education and to fundamentally re-develop citizenship provision. Finally, whilst we can see the value of programmes such as NCS, we make a plea for the inquiry to recommend strengthening long term, embedded and community based approaches to support younger people to develop stronger ties within communities and civic and political systems

Getting heard : a handbook for Hong Kong citizens

This Handbook suggests ways that individual citizens can work with each other and with the government in making choices and taking action. It is based on the belief that effective public dialogue benefits both citizens and government. Getting Heard provides concrete information about the specific steps needed to transform an idea or a vision into a reality and explains how you can use this information to influence government bodies and also companies. The Handbook addresses issues such as how to write a press release, organise a campaign and raise money. It includes contact information for individual government departments, government officials and the media. It also includes a sample funding proposal, a template for press releases and other useful information. Civic Exchange believes it is possible to make decisions about public issues in an open and creative manner. The secret to successful participatory decision-making lies in establishing better communication between well-informed people. This is the objective of Getting Heard. The Handbook is aimed at anyone seeking to participate in the dialogue on public affairs in Hong Kong or shape decision- making on a particular issuepublished_or_final_versionI Communication p611 The corporate world p9810.The HKSAR government9.Government8 Shaping public opinion p657 The media p566 Sustainability tools p395 Developing a campaign and raising money p284 Forms of participation p183 Public participation p112 Social tools for sustainability p6II The chief executive p81III The Executive Council (ExCo) p83IV The Legislative Council (LegCo) p84V District Councils p90VI Government Departments and Agencies p92VII Government Committee System p93VIII Access to information system p94V Gaining support for your cause p71IX Privacy commission's office p95X Office of the Ombudsman p96XI Summary p97I Basic law p80IV Reciprocity p70III Surveys p67II Petitions p66I Writing letters p65VII Listening projects p55VI Transforming conflict p53V Working in groups p47IV Be aware of mindset p45III Organising meetings p42II Developing leadership p411 What one person can achieve / Mei-ling Fok, Wong Wai- king, Amy Yung p1Appendices p105I Forming an NGO p40III Raising money p34II Practise what you preach p32I Developing a campaign p28V Increasing participation p27IV Non-traditional participation p26III Professional participation p25II Shifting the policy paradigm p22I Methods of participation p18II Social tools and public participation p

Free markets and constitutional reform : creating a deliberative framework for Hong Kong

Opening remark -- Proposing a deliberative framework -- Reporting to plenary -- Plenary discussion -- Closing remarksLive recording from a conference organized by Civic Exchange, the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences, the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law,and the Centre for Comparative and Public Law on 12 June 2004Title from disc labelSpeakers: William Barron, James Tang, Ming Chan, Stephen Brown, Johannes Chan, Eden WoonThe conference focuses on the business perspective on political development of constitutional reform in Hong Kongpublished_or_final_versio

The impotence of accountability : the relationship between greater transparency and corporate reform

This paper explores the role of accounting in the attempted reform of the corporation during the ‘progressive era’ in the United States. Focusing on the activities of three institutional bodies in the early twentieth century, the paper documents how their repeated recourse to ‘publicity’, which relied crucially on accounting technologies, failed to turn the corporation into an entity more sensitive to the public interest. Specifically, two inter-related contributions are made to existing literature on accounting and corporate governance. Firstly, the paper documents the early historical development of the now taken for granted phenomenon of accounting and adjudicating at the entity level (Miller and Power, 2013). Secondly, the paper offers a rejoinder to present day projects of corporate governance which identify better and enhanced accountability as key to the successful reform of the corporation. During the progressive era, accounting expanded and territorialized new spaces, bringing trusts out of a hitherto secretive, private realm and into the view of the public. Yet this was not enough to engender substantive corporate reform

Hong Kong’s water security: a governance perspective

Traditional concerns regarding Hong Kong’s water security have centred on water quantity, quality and pricing. In contrast, this article embraces an integrative conceptualization of water security from a governance perspective. A technocratic and supply-oriented water system may overlook challenges stemming from scalar mismatches at the territorial, institutional and discursive levels, as well as at the science–policy interface. Resilience thinking could identify new areas of concern and provide contextually sensitive insights into Hong Kong’s water security, which will be subject to the restructuring of the water governance system, which concerns changing discourses, power relations and institutional mechanisms