Collective Identification and the Protest Movement in Hong Kong: Understanding Associations with Collective Efficacy and Protest Behavior

Dr Reichert, Frank   (Principal Investigator (PI))

Professor Fu King Wa   (Co-Investigator)

Dr Wong Pui Shan Mona   (Co-Investigator)

Professor Law Nancy Wai Ying   (Co-Investigator)

7

2020-04-14

405971

Collective Identification and the Protest Movement in Hong Kong: Understanding Associations with Collective Efficacy and Protest Behavior

Collective identity, Grievances, Political efficacy, Radicalization, Youth political engagement

Others - Education,Others - relating to Social Sciences

Humanities & Social Sciences (H)

SR2020.A8.006

Public Policy Research Funding Scheme

2020

Completed

The project aims to understand the complex associations among identification with cultural and political collectives, perceived efficacy, grievances, and peaceful and radicalforms of political action. The focus is on undergraduate students in Hong Kong to: 1. Determine students’ levels of collective identification with different groups, including identification as ""Hongkonger"" and/or Chinese, inclusive identification versus separatist identification, and identification with online and offline political communities. 2. Determine whether different forms of identification have distinct associations with sympathy for radical political action (including violence against objects and persons). 3. Investigate the associations between involvement in, and support or opposition of, the recent protests and changes in youths’ sense of efficacy as political actors, through online and offline channels, and how efficacy and collective identities relate to each other. 4. Investigate whether and how perceived conflict among collective identities and shared grievances relate to support for or withdrawal from the protest movement. 5. Evaluate potentials for policy and education to develop recommendations that (i) empower youths as political actors, (ii) address critical aspects of collective identification in Hong Kong, and which (iii) avoid simplistic and assimilationist claims for ""national education"" (as this might merely produce a new layer of exclusion rather than solving the complex issue of identity and social injustice in Hong Kong; cf. Jackson 2019).