Collaboration opportunities among Asian housing scholars: present and future

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the opportunities of international collaboration among Asian housing academics. There are a few international research organizations related to housing studies in Asia, but only the Asia Real Estate Society and the Asia Pacific Network for Housing Research were specifically set up to promote housing research in the region. Publication of housing papers written by Asian housing scholars in international journals is meagre, let alone those published in the top journals. Therefore, the internationalization of Asian housing studies is at a rather low level. Asian housing scholars mainly collaborate with Western scholars. This article argues that collaboration among Asian scholars should be encouraged because we should build our own theoretical models suiting to our uniqueness. Further, with similar cultural and spatial backgrounds, experiences are more transferable. However, international collaboration requires the use of a common language, which is generally English. This poses the biggest barrier to international collaboration in the Asian region. Nonetheless, within the region, the most frequently used language is Chinese. It is worth exploring expanding collaboration opportunities with the use of Chinese.

本文旨在探討亞洲住宅學者的國際合作機會。現時與亞洲住宅研究有關的組織有好幾個，但專注住宅研究的只有《亞洲房地產協會》及《亞太房屋研究網絡》。亞洲住宅學者在國際期刊發表的論文並不多。在頂尖期刊發表的，更如鳳毛麟角。所以亞洲住宅學國際化程度並不高。 亞洲住宅學者的合作研究，多與西方學者為伍。但本文指出，我們應增加亞洲學者之間的合作機會，因為我們應共同建立符合亞洲住宅發展及特色的理論模式。而且，由於相近的文化及地域背景，可互相借鏡的地方也較多。但國際間的合作通常使用英語，這也是國際合作的大障礙。其實，區內最多國家使用的語言是中文。以中文作為工作語言來推動國際間的合作研究，是值得探討的。