This course aims to introduce students to social changes and challenges for governance in the contemporary world via a number of core themes that will be addressed through lectures/discussion and related movies or documentary screenings. Each theme will bring together a designated film or a number of shorter documentaries and key concepts, context, and debates related to the film. The themes to be covered are as follows: 1) family changes; 2) aging society; 3) technology and dystopia; 4) the political economy of food; 5) rapid environmental change; 6) the global illicit economy and the wildlife trade; 7) Hong Kong and the circular economy.   

Social Change and Governance Challenges: A Critical Appreciation Through Film is an interdisciplinary course drawing on anthropology, history, political science, public policy and sociology. It adopts a pedagogical strategy that emphasizes exploration and discovery through various modes of learning and critical inquiry, and in particular via reading 'film languages' of both documentaries and feature films. The course also serves to demonstrate the value and relevance of social scientific and humanistic study and research in understanding Asia, and the world more broadly.

Through their work in this course, students will be better placed to conceptualize local, regional and global governance challenges and to think through the potential and limits of social action. The selected issues represent key issues facing societies today, especially demographic change, worsening natural ecosystems, and fears of technological overreach. Students will critically examine multiple levels of analysis, from individuals and families to public and private actors to larger social forces. The focus is continuity and change in the region, while also situating developments in both a Hong Kong and a global context.  

Notionally, the film screenings are listed below:

1) family changes: The Farewell
2) aging society: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
3) technology and dystopia: Ghost in the Shell
4) the political economy of food: Okja
5) rapid environmental change: The Last Glaciers
6) the global illicit economy and the wildlife trade: The Last Animals
7) Hong Kong and the circular economy: reFashioned