Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-18T23:03:52.366Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Looking to the east and the west: the double-attachment strategy used by the Hong Kong government to develop welfare to work measures for lone parents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Sam W.K. Yu ,
Ruby C.M. Chau ,
Kathy Boxall  and
Wind C.Y. Chung
Sam W.K. Yu*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Work, Hong Kong Baptist UniversityHong Kong
Ruby C.M. Chau
Affiliation:
Independent Researcher
Kathy Boxall
Affiliation:
Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Wind C.Y. Chung
Affiliation:
Department of Social Work, Hong Kong Baptist UniversityHong Kong
*
*Corresponding author. Email: samyu@hkbu.edu.hk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article discusses how the Hong Kong government used a double-attachment strategy to develop welfare to work measures for lone parents; and demonstrates how this discussion could contribute to the study of the cultural and political economy perspectives on East Asian welfare regimes. It shows that the Hong Kong government developed welfare to work measures with reference not only to the New Deal for Lone Parents in the UK, but also to certain traditional Chinese principles. In view of the Hong Kong government's attempt to attach its welfare policies to its own tradition and to the thinking of Western world, it is argued that both cultural and political economy perspectives are significant in the study of East Asian welfare regimes. Moreover, it is important to have a realistic understanding of the uniqueness of East Asian countries in the ways they organize welfare even though there are similarities with Western countries.

Keywords

East Asian welfare regimeswelfare to work measuresdouble-attachment strategy
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 2014 , pp. 93 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 Taylor & Francis

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aspalter, C. (2006). The East Asian welfare model. International Journal of Social Welfare, 15, 290–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bambra, C. (2005). Worlds of welfare and the health care discrepancy. Social Policy and Society, 4, 31–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bambra, C. (2007). Defamilisation and welfare state regimes: a cluster analysis. International Journal of Social Welfare, 16, 326–38. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2397.2007.00486.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. (2005, September 26). Gordon Brown‘s speech to labour party conference, Brighton. Retrieved from www.Guardian.co.ukGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. (2007). Full speech by the prime minister the RT. HON Gordon Brown MP. To the CBI annual conference 2007, Birmingham. Retrieved from www.cbi.org.ukGoogle Scholar
Brown, R., & Joyce, L. (2007). New deal for lone parents: Non participation qualitative research (Research Report No. 408). London: Department for Work and Pensions.Google Scholar
Chau, C. M., & Yu, W. K. (2005). Is welfare unAsian? InWalker, A. & Wong, C. K. (Eds.), East Asian welfare regimes in transition: From confucianism to globalization (pp. 21–45). Bristol: The Policy Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chau, C. M., & Yu, W. K. (2009). Social quality and the social harmony campaign in Hong Kong. Development and Society, 38(2), 277–295.Google Scholar
Chau, C. M., & Yu, W. K. (2011). Ethnocentric bias in the comparative study of social welfare: The case of welfare reforms in Hong Kong. Journal of Comparative Social Welfare, 27(3), 233–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chau, C. M., & Yu, W. K. (2013). Defamilisation of 22 countries – its implications for the study of East Asian welfare regime. Social Policy and Society, 12(3), 355–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiu, S., & Wong, V. (1999). Confucian welfare: A new legitimation for social welfare in Hong Kong special administrative region. In Lesnik, B. (Ed.), International perspectives in social work – social work and the state (pp. 75–86). London: Pavilion.Google Scholar
Chiu, S., & Wong, V. (2005). Towards a Confucian notion of youth development in Hong Kong. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 25(10/11), 14–36.Google Scholar
Choi, Y.-J. (2006). Transformations in economic security during old-age in Korea: The implications for public pension reforms. Ageing and Society, 26(4), 549–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chung, D., & Haynes, A. (1993). Confucian welfare philosophy and social change technology: An integrated approach for international social development. International Social Work, 36, 37–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, R. (2004). The path-dependency of an idea: Why Scandinavian welfare states remain distinct. Social Policy and Administration, 28(2), 204–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croissant, A. (2004). Changing welfare regimes in East and Southeast Asia: Crisis, change and challenge. Social Policy and Administration, 58(5), 504–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deacon, A. (2002). Perspectives on welfare: Ideas, ideologies, and policy debates. Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Department for Employment and Learning. (2005). New deal for partners – staff instructions. Retrieved from http://www.delni.gov.uk/docs/pdf/NDLP_SI_Oct05.pdfGoogle Scholar
Dwyer, P. (2000). Welfare rights and responsibilities: Contesting social citizenship. Bristol: Policy Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dwyer, P. (2008). The conditional welfare state. In Powell, M. (Ed.), Modernising the welfare state: The Blair Legacy (pp. 199–217). Bristol: The Policy Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The Three worlds of welfare capitalism. London: Polity.Google Scholar
Evans, M., Eyre, J., Millar, J., & Sarre, S. (2003). New deal for lone parents: Second synthesis report of the national evaluation. Prepared for the Department of Work and Pensions (June). Retrieved from www.dwp.gov.uk/jad/2003/163_rep.pdfGoogle Scholar
Fergusson, R. (2002). Rethinking youth transitions: Policy transfer and new exclusions in New Labour's New Deal. Policy Studies, 23(3/4), 173–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finn, D., & Gloster, R. (2010). Lone parent obligations: A review of recent evidence on the work-related requirements within the benefit systems of different countries (Department for Work and Pensions Research Report 632). Norwich: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Graham, M. (2002). Creating spaces: Exploring the role of cultural knowledge as a source of empowerment in models of social welfare in black communities. British Journal of Social Work, 32(1), 35–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregg, P., Harkness, S., & Macmillan, L. (2006). Welfare to work policies and child poverty. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Heron, E., & Dwyer, P. (1999). Doing the right thing: Labour's attempt to forge a new welfare deal between the individual and the State. Social Policy and Administration, 33(1), 91–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, M. (2006). Social policy in the modern world: A comparative text. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Holliday, I., & Ramesh, M. (2001). The health care miracle in East and Southeast Asia: Activist state provision in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. Journal of Social Policy, 30(4), 637–651.Google Scholar
Holliday, I., & Wilding, P. (2003). Welfare capitalism in East Asia: Social policy in the tiger economies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hong Kong Association for the Survivors of Women Abuse (Kwan Fook). (2005, November 22). Comment on the New Dawn Project (Legco Paper CB(2)397/05–06(3)) (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Hsu, I. C. Y. (2000). The rise of modern China. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, C. (Ed.) (1993). New perspectives in the welfare state in Europe. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jones Finer, C. (1998). The new social policy in Britain. In Jones Finer, C. & Nellis, M. (Eds.), Crime and social exclusion (pp. 154–170). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Karim, S. A., Eikemo, T. A., & Bambra, C. (2010). Welfare state regimes and population health: Integrating the East Asian welfare states. Health Policy, 94(1), 45–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, Y.-M. (2006, January). Towards a comprehensive welfare state in South Korea: Institutional features, new social and political pressures, and the possibility of the welfare state (Working Paper No. 14). London: Asia Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science.Google Scholar
Kim, Y.-M. (2008). Beyond East Asian welfare productivism in South Korea. Policy and Politics, 36(1), 109–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ku, Y. W., & Jones Finer, C. (2007). Developments in East Asian welfare studies. Social Policy and Administration, 41(2), 115–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwon, H.-J. (1998). Democracy and the politics of social welfare: A comparative analysis of welfare systems in East Asia. In Goodman, R., White, G., & Kwon, H.-J. (Eds.), The East Asian welfare model: Welfare orientalism and the state (pp. 27–74). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lee, J., & Chan, K. W. (Eds.). (2007). The crisis of welfare in East Asia. Plymouth: Lexington Book.Google Scholar
Legislative Council Secretariat. (2007a). A study to evaluate the New Dawn project for single parents/child carers under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance scheme (LC Paper NO. CB(2) 2030/06–07(01)).Google Scholar
Legislative Council Secretariat. (2007b). Social enterprise policies of the United Kingdom, Spain and Hong Kong (Research report prepared by S. Li and T. Wong). Retrieved from http://legco.gov.hk/yr07-08/english/sec/library/0708rp03-e.pdfGoogle Scholar
Legislative Council Secretariat. (2007c). Overview of social enterprise policies and measures of the United Kingdom and Spain (Information Note prepared by S. Li. LC Paper NO. IN09/06-07).Google Scholar
Legislative Council Secretariat. (2007d). Minimum wage system in the United Kingdom. Fact Sheet prepared by Research and Library Services Division. LC Paper NO. FS18/06-07.Google Scholar
Legislative Council Secretariat. (2008). Minimum wage system in selected places. Research, research report prepared by J. Wu and D. Wong. Retrieved from http://legco.gov.hk/yr07-08/english/sec/library/0708rp04-e.pdfGoogle Scholar
Lessof, C., Miller, M., Phillips, M., Pickering, K., Purdon, S., & Hales, J. (2003). New deal for lone parents evaluation: Findings from the quantitative survey (WAE 147). Sheffield: Department for Work and Pensions.Google Scholar
March, J. G., & Olsen, J. P. (1989). Rediscovering institutions: The organizational basis of politics. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Millar, J., & Ridge, T. (2008). Relationships of care: Working lone mothers, their children and employment sustainability. Journal of Social Policy, 38(1), 103–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mishra, R. (1984). The welfare state in crisis: Social thought and social change. Brighton: Harvester Whearsheaf.Google Scholar
Mishra, R. (1999). Globalization and the welfare state. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Offe, C. (1984). Contradiction of the welfare state. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Pulkingham, J.Fuller, S., & Kershw, P. (2010). Lone motherhood, welfare reform and active citizen subjectivity. Critical Social Policy, 30(2), 267–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramesh, M., & Holliday, I. (2001). The health care miracle in East and Southeast Asia: Activist state provision in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. Journal of Social Policy, 30(4), 637–651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridge, T. (2009). It Didn't Always Work’: Low-Income children's experiences of changes in mothers’ working patterns in the UK. Social Policy and Society, 8(4), 503–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rozman, G. (Ed.). (1991). The East Asian region: Confucian heritage and its modern adaptation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rozman, G. (1992). The Confucian faces of capitalism. In M. Borthwick, (Ed.), Pacific century: The emergency of modern pacific Asia (pp. 308–316). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Schiele, J. (2000). Human services and the Afrocentric Paradigm. London: The Haworth Press.Google Scholar
Social Welfare Advisory Committee. (2010). Long-term social welfare planning in Hong Kong (Consultative Paper). Hong Kong: Social Welfare Advisory Committee Secretariat.Google Scholar
Social Welfare Department. (1998). Support for self-reliance – report on review of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme (December 1998). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Printer.Google Scholar
Social Welfare Department. (2006). New Dawn intensive employment assistance projects. Retrieved from http://www.swd.gov.hk/doc/whatsnew/IEAP_Mar06.pdfGoogle Scholar
Social Welfare Department. (2010). A guide to comprehensive social security assistance (Revised in June 2010). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government Printer.Google Scholar
Tsang, D. Y. K. (2007). The policy address 2007. Hong Kong: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Tung, C. H. (1997a). The policy address 1997. Hong Kong: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Tung, C. H. (1997b, December 20). Speech by Mr Tung Chee Hwa, the chief executive. Paper presented at the conference on the review of the implementation of the charter for youth, Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Tung, C. H. (1997c, July 1). Speech by the chief executive the Hon. Tung Chee Hwa at the ceremony to celebrate the establishment of the Hong Kong SAR of the People's Republic of China.Google Scholar
Tung, C. H. (1998). Speech by the chief executive at DGS annual speech day on November 27.Google Scholar
Tung, C. H. (1999). The 1999 policy address. Hong Kong: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Tung, C. H. (2001). The policy address 2001. Hong Kong: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Walker, A., & Wong, C. K. (1996). Rethinking the western construction of the welfare state. International Journal of Health Services, 26(1), 67–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, A., & Wong, C. K. (2004). The ethnocentric construction of the welfare state. In Kennett, P. (Ed.), A handbook of comparative social policy (pp. 116–50). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Walker, A., & Wong, C. K. (2005). Introduction: East Asian welfare regimes. In Walker, A. & Wong, C. K. (Eds.), East Asian welfare regimes in transition (pp. 3–20). Hong Kong: The Policy Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, C. K.Tang, K. L., & Lo, V. L. (2007). Unaffordable health care amid phenomenal growth – the case of health care protection in reform China. International Journal of Social Welfare, 16, 140–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeo, A. (2007). Experience of work and job retention among lone parents: An evidence review (Working Paper No. 37). Leeds: Department for Work and Pensions.Google Scholar
Yu, W. K. (2005). Social exclusion. Hong Kong: Social Division, City University of Hong Kong (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Yu, W. K. (2007). Pension reforms in urban China and Hong Kong. Ageing & Society, 27, 249–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, W. K. (2008a). The Ideological orientation of the New Dawn project. Hong Kong Journal of Social Work, 42(1/2 Summer/Winter), 105–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, W. K. (2008b). The Normative ideas underpinning the welfare to work measures for young people in Hong Kong and the UK. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 28(9/10), 380–393.Google Scholar
Yu, W. K. (2012). Welfare to work measures in Hong Kong and the UK. Taiwan United Way Review, 1(1), 87–104.Google Scholar