“Collaborative Research Postgraduate Students' Seminar Series”, organized jointly by Lingnan University's School of Graduate Studies and the Education University of Hong Kong, welcomed its second distinguished speaker Professor XiaoHu Wang, a renowned expert in public administration from the City University of Hong Kong, to deliver two engaging seminars on 26th and 27th March 2024. The first seminar, titled"Public Administration Research: Towards a Relevant Research Agenda," was followed by the second seminar, titled"Governance Research on Collaborative Efforts in the Greater Bay Area."
In the seminar on 26th March, Prof. Wang discussed the research agenda in public administration, emphasizing competition, collaboration, and the China Model. He highlighted the applied orientation and critical debate in public administration, along with emerging trends such as behavioral and experimental approaches, big data, and data mining. Prof. Wang also shared tips for successful research, including effective paper framing and topic selection, and encouraged resilience in the face of publication rejections.
In the seminar on 27th March, Prof. Wang focused on collaborative governance in the Greater Bay Area (GBA). He examined collaborative disputes through case analysis of collaborative projects in GBA area, identifying internal issues (technical, operational) and external context issues (political, legal, social, cultural). Prof. Wang emphasized the complexity of governance collaboration and proposed infrastructure and non-infrastructure solutions.
The seminar also explored contextual influences of collaboration, particularly economic and financial fluctuations in Hong Kong. A longitudinal study of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge project revealed the association between sociopolitical context and institutional tensions, moderated by economic or financial development. Prof. Wang presented a contextual dynamic collaboration model and highlighted the external imposition of central government in collaborative activities in the Greater Bay Area. This external imposition was portrayed as potentially offering expedited solutions, but it also raised concerns regarding the potential loss of benefits stemming from prolonged negotiations and uncertain long-term impacts.
For future practical implications, Prof. Wang suggested increased central engagement in growing local collaborative efforts in China. He proposed research areas such as collaboration failures, capacity-building processes, and collaborations across different policy domains. Prof. Wang's research team compiled extensive data on collaborative frictions, tensions, and disputes.
The “Collaborative Research Postgraduate Students' Seminar Series” will be continued on 8 April 2024 by Prof. Bo WEN from the University of Macau, and we anticipate another enriching discussion. To learn more, please visit https://www.ln.edu.hk/sgs/news/Collaborative-Research-Postgraduate-Students-Seminar-Series-by-Prof-Bo-Wen.
