The carceral city: confinement and order in Hong Kong’s forbidden enclave

Fraser, A. and Schliehe, A. (2021) The carceral city: confinement and order in Hong Kong’s forbidden enclave. British Journal of Criminology, 61(3), pp. 587-606. (doi: 10.1093/bjc/azaa087)

Abstract

Once feted, Hong Kong has recently become a centre of civil unrest. In this paper, we situate these emergent politics through a case study of corruption and everyday life in Kowloon Walled City, a mainland Chinese enclave in British Hong Kong, which developed notoriety as a freestanding grey economy. Drawing from oral testimonies of police officers, triad members and local residents, we excavate the lived experience of confinement within this contested space. These accounts reconstruct the Walled City as a ‘quasi-carceral’ site of enclosure, a zone of colonial exceptionalism and a hybrid cultural space. Through this case study, we historicize current debates in carceral geography, humanize recent interventions in urban scholarship and analyse the shifting politics at the frontier of Chinese expansionism.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The study was supported by a grant from the University of Hong Kong Seedcorn Fund.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Schliehe, Miss Anna Katharina and Fraser, Professor Alistair
• Authors: Fraser, A., and Schliehe, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: British Journal of Criminology
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• ISSN: 0007-0955
• ISSN (Online): 1464-3529
• Published Online: 05 January 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in British Journal of Criminology 61(3): 587-606
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy