Self-Organization and Mobility Deprivation of Poor Workers in Hong Kong and Singapore

This book focuses on the influence of socio-economic and land-use policies on the commuting problems and quality of life of the poor in Singapore and Hong Kong. It considers the influence of self-organisation: how the mobility of an individual is constituted by structures such as transport systems or socio-economic structural factors, as well as influenced by individual decisions. Where most transport studies focus on the influence of factors such as income inequality, the gender gap, and the built environment, this book fills a gap in paying particular attention to the influence of individual decisions on commuting. Given the prevalence of the former in research, government decision-makers are often constrained by these approaches and fail to understand the commuting problems of the poor. This book argues that the self-organisation approach provides some ideas that are outside the common conceptual framework in conventional transport planning and looks to improve mobility of lower-income commuters. Relevant to social science researchers working in areas such as urban planning and transport, mobility deprivation, and poverty, this book breaks new ground in quality of life studies in the Singapore and Hong Kong contexts.

Joseph Cho Yam Lau is an independent researcher investigating poverty and urban transport planning in Hong Kong. He obtained his M.Phil. degree from the University of Hong Kong in 1997 under the supervision of Professor H. Dimitriou. He completed his doctoral degree at the University of Hong Kong in 2007 supervised by Professor Peter Hills. He has published numerous journal papers mainly in Cities and Habitat International, as well as a book published by Springer in 2020.