Scale Politics Amid Spatial Governance: A Case Study of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

Rapid regional economic development and urban growth in China pose new theoretical and practical demands for enhanced national spatial governance. However, existing political science theories, such as scientific hierarchy, block politics, and corporatism, though rooted in the local context, lack a spatial dimension. Conversely, geographical theories focusing on administrative regional economies and industrial functional zones are predominantly grounded in Western new regionalism and lack a locally-based perception. To address this gap, this study employs a scale political perspective, integrating theories from new Marxist geography and relevant theories of "state spatiality." By elucidating the performative and discursive characteristics of spatial governance, this study extends the discussion to the threefold abstraction of scale politics in the relationships among various actors, constructing an explanatory theory for spatial governance mechanisms. Through a conceptual framework of "material, discursive, an