Constructing a Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area social space: cross-sectoral experiences of key node university faculties

Abstract This paper explores how university faculties with experience of brokering academic, industrial, and governmental networks, as key nodes, perceive, conceive, and live the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) higher education space. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s (1991) critical work on the production of space and Ronald S. Burt’s (2000) social network theory, this study draws primarily on semi-structured interviews with faculties from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau Special Adminstrative Regions, complemented with policies, investment statistics, and funding schemes. It suggests that the GBA space attains “real” existence by virtue of networks, pathways, and clusters of relationships built within and across its triad of space, particularly the “structural holes” addressed by key node faculties. These early strategic movers create a new equilibrium of demand for the GBA through cross-fertilizing networks of academia, industry, and government across city-regions and administrative borders. This study contributes theoretically and methodologically by combining spatial and social network theories to unpack the under-examined “lived” space, which is often seen as subordinate to “perceived” and “conceived” spaces. It provides significant policy and practical implications for optimizing regulations to better coordinate resources and institutions supportive of multi-sectoral networks and practices across the regional development of the GBA and beyond.