Keep Hong Kong Clean campaign and the Fight Violent Crime campaign. Existing community organizations were called upon to give their services (Scott 1980: 18).
The Mutual Aid Committees, designed as they were with a residence-based structure, would also be useful organizations to mobilize for the promotion of these campaigns, and some district officials suggested that this possibility was in mind when the committees were established.
A third, equally important, reason for establishing the Mutual Aid Committees was the desire of the government and concerned private citizens to improve the neighbourliness of high-rise buildings and multi-storey blocks. More specifically, government officials were becoming more concerned about cooperation and safety.
When crime reared its head in these surroundings, the instinctive reaction was to retreat behind locked doors and ignore whatever might be happening outside. Prospects for neighbourly co-operation made little headway under these circumstances, and the concept of getting together with one's fellow tenants, to organize collective action for the common good, remained remote and unreal (Government Information Services 1974:9).
The formation of the MACs was hailed as a step forward in improving residents' concern for each other and in improving living conditions.
The tradition of mutual aid originally grew up in a rural setting. Today this tradition is being harnessed to tackle urban social problems found in the management of multi-storey buildings under divided ownership. The mutual aid committee is a simple form of organization which can be set up with a minimum of formality, enabling owners and tenants to work together to improve conditions in their buildings. Although the basic aim of the movement is building management, it is already clear that the mutual aid committee has the potential to meet other needs; in particular the need to replace the social links that disappeared with the decline of traditional forms of village life. A sense of
Keep Hong Kong Clean campaign and the Fight Violent Crime campaign. Existing community organizations were called upon to give their services (Scott 1980: 18).
The Mutual Aid Committees, designed as they were with a residence-based structure, would also be useful organizations to mobilize for the promotion of these campaigns, and some district officials suggested that this possibility was in mind when the committees were established.
A third, equally important, reason for establishing the Mutual Aid Committees was the desire of the government and concerned private citizens to improve the neighbourliness of high-rise buildings and multi-storey blocks. More specifically, government officials were becoming more concerned about cooperation and safety.
When crime reared its head in these surroundings, the instinctive reaction was to retreat behind locked doors and ignore whatever might be happening outside. Prospects for neighbourly co-operation made little headway under these circumstances, and the concept of getting together with one's fellow tenants, to organize collective action for the common good, remained remote and unreal (Government Information Services 1974:9).
The formation of the MACs was hailed as a step forward in improving residents' concern for each other and in improving living conditions.
The tradition of mutual aid originally grew up in a rural setting. Today this tradition is being harnessed to tackle urban social problems found in the management of multi- storey buildings under divided ownership. The mutual aid committee is a simple form of organization which can be set up with a minimum of formality, enabling owners and tenants to work together to improve conditions in their buildings. Although the basic aim of the movement is building management, it is already clear that the mutual aid committee has the potential to meet other needs; in particular the need to replace the social links that disappeared with the decline of traditional forms of village life. A sense of
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