© 2003 Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal Community Development Journal Vol 38 No 2 April 2003 pp. 151–163 151 Unmasking the ‘naturalness’ of ‘community eclipse’: The case of Hong Kong Ernest Chui Abstract This article argues that ‘community eclipse’ theorized by Chicago eco- logical sociologists is not caused ‘naturally’, but by the constellation of economic, socio-cultural and political factors. Hong Kong, a former British colony, has undergone urbanization-cum-industrialization and experienced a demise of community spirit. Industrialization set the stage for urbanization, while the property-led economy spurred unscrupulous urban renewal. Government public housing and new town policies spurred urban sprawl, disrupted pre-existent communities and uprooted the residents. The local people attended to ‘capitalistic consciousness’ and pragmatic concerns rather than communitarian precepts. Social capital should be nurtured in revitalizing the eclipsed communities. Introduction Hong Kong, renowned as ‘The Pearl of the Orient’, has undergone spec- tacular transformation from a fishing village to a global city. Although it has 150 years of British colonial history and has been baptized with Western culture, Hong Kong has remained a Chinese city with a population consti- tuted predominantly by ethnic Chinese. It has attained an astonishing level of urbanization, following half a century of industrialization and commer- cialization. Urbanization has submerged the rural population and com- munities under the ‘urban way of life’ (Wirth, 1938). Urban renewal and massive public housing programmes have disrupted pre-existent com- munities but failed to establish new ones. As the Chicago urban sociologists theorized, urbanization inevitably renders community eclipse. Neverthe- less, in this paper it is postulated that there are indeed various factors unique to Hong Kong pertaining to the changes in the community. These include economic, socio-cultural and government policies that have contributed to the demise of neighbourliness. This paper, drawing upon the author’s personal experience of living and working in deprived communities, high- lights the need for community development services in developing social at University of Hong Kong on February 26, 2012 http://cdj.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from