Urban custodians and hospitable citizens: citizenship and social actions at two liberal arts universities in Hong Kong and Shanghai

Drawing upon fieldwork conducted at two liberal arts universities in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 2018, this article explores how liberal arts educational institutions are promulgating citizenship ideas about moral and character development, as well as the ways in which young people’s social actions are informed by these citizenship narratives alongside wider socio-economic and political norms governing the urban subject. We discuss two emergent political subjectivities – the urban custodian and the hospitable citizen – to demonstrate students’ civic actions as political work in their ongoing efforts to generate change in their urban relations and conditions.