Complex Governance Networks Research Articles

Cross-border Urban Governance in Hong Kong: The Role of State in a Globalizing City-Region*

The rapid development in the Hong Kong-Pearl River Delta (PRD) city-region has taken place alongside complicated cross-border governance. The framework of time-space envelopes (TSEs) is adopted for a study of cross-border governance in Hong Kong, especially in the role of the state, that is, the Hong Kong government, in cross-border urban governance. This article argues that tension- free regional integration has never existed due to a complex governance network. The shift from “cross-border protectionism” to “cross-border free trade zone” in Hong Kong's cross-border urban governance since 2001 is a result of the rearticulation of the state cutting through the geoeconomic and geopolitical TSEs.