Course Code
CHES5125
Course Name
Selected Themes on Chinese Society
Time
Friday 12:30PM - 03:15PM
Venue
WMY_304
Instructor
Dr. WANG Xiaolu
Teaching Assistant
Wu Ka Wai
Course Description
More and more governments are taking actions to encourage social innovation with a view to leveraging resources in civil society to meet social needs. This course is designed to help students gain the knowledge of the third sector in the Chinese contexts (Mainland China and Hong Kong). In the course, we explore state-society relations by examining the roles of the third sector in public services, the development and governance of the third sector, and government actions to encourage social innovation and social entrepreneurship. The course also provides comparative analysis between the Chinese contexts and western liberal democracies with a view to highlighting how global trends on social economy (e.g., impact investing, social entrepreneurship) are adapted to Chinese contexts.
Course Outline
WEEK 1: Lecture 1 Introduction to the third sector and civil society
Definitions and sociological foundations
Readings: 2,13
WEEK 2: Lecture 2 Third sector regimes and state-society relations
The roles of third sector organizations in public services
Readings: 2,13
WEEK 3: Lecture 3 The third sector in Hong Kong
Statist-corporatist regime
Readings: 1,5,17
WEEK 4: Lecture 4 The third sector and social organizations in Mainland China 1
GONGOs, Minfei (nonprofit), societies, foundations
Readings: 6,12,18
WEEK 5: Lecture 5 The third sector and social organizations in Mainland China 2
Professionalization of social work, purchase of service, transfer of government functions
Readings: 6, 9, 18
WEEK 6: Lecture 6 The third sector and social organizations in Mainland China 3
State-society relations: From social management to social governance
Readings: 4, 7, 8, 10, 14,15,16
WEEK 7: Lecture 7 Urban commons
Community resilience
Readings: 19, 20
WEEK 8: Lecture 8 Case studies on local social service provision in Mainland China
Group work and presentation
WEEK 9: Lecture 9 Social entrepreneurship and social Innovation
Social enterprises and cross-country comparison
Readings: 3, 11
WEEK 10: Lecture 10 Case studies on commons in Mainland China
Group work and presentation
WEEK 11: Lecture 11 Government actions to build enabling ecosystems for social innovation
Comparison between UK, HK and Mainland China
Readings: 3
WEEK 12: Lecture 12 Case studies on social innovation incubators in
Hong Kong
Field visits to incubators at ChineseU (Yunus Centre), PolyU (DISI) and Good Lab
WEEK 13: Lecture 13 Global trends on impact and sustainability-oriented practices
Impact investing, social impact bonds, social procurement, urban commons and the like.
Assessment & Assignments
Attendance 10%
Participation 10%
[Group report on case study 1] 25%
[Group report on case study 2] 25%
Honesty in Academic Work
Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/. With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed VeriGuide declaration that they are aware of the policies, regulations and procedures.