Theorising from the Belt and Road Initiative (一带一路)

Abstract

As frame for the set that follows, this article first considers the range of theoretical interpretations of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Our focus, however, is on a related yet distinct set of questions. Rather than theorising BRI per se, we approach BRI as a source of theoretical implications and reflectionasking what it signals and implies for wider cultural, economic, political, social and urban theories, and for histories of and afterlives of imperial geopolitics.

The rise of Chengdu between geopolitics and geo‐economics: City‐regional development under the Belt and Road Initiative and beyond

“…Thus, geographers call for shifted attention to material processes in which the BRI unfolds and its multiscale/dimensional consequence across the globe (Sidaway et al, 2020). Theorising from the BRI and its ongoing geographical processes is necessary (Lin et al, 2021). This paper advances this thesis of ‘theorising from the BRI’ by underlining two dimensions of the BRI for advancing critical human geography.…”

“…These restructurings are not only external at the international scale but also internal at the (sub)national scale. Hence, rather than the broad‐level abstraction of geopolitical/geo‐economic goals (Lin et al, 2021; Apostolopoulou, 2021a; Wei et al, 2021), it is necessary to examine (1) the material processes in which the geostrategy unfolds through internal restructurings (Sparke, 2018a), (2) how the BRI‐related infrastructure projects are enacted for addressing social, political, and economic crises at the (sub)national scale, materially or discursively.…”

Imagined borderlands: Terrain, technology and trade in the making and managing of the China‐Myanmar border

“…2020; Lin et al . 2021), but also to the infrastructural, future‐oriented mode of visioning encapsulated by the ‘anticipatory geography’ heuristic. What is particularly relevant for the argument I am developing in this paper, is addressing the impact of such processes on bordering practices.…”

“…This argument thus not only speaks to recent literature that urges scholars and practitioners to address the BRI in the complexity and plurality of its multi-faced entanglements and engagements (cf. Oliveira et al 2020;Sidaway et al 2020;Lin et al 2021), but also to the infrastructural, future-oriented mode of visioning encapsulated by the 'anticipatory geography' heuristic. What is particularly relevant for the argument I am developing in this paper, is addressing the impact of such processes on bordering practices.…”

Guest Editorial: Crossing the river by feeling the stones – Alternative imaginaries of China and Southeast Asia in contemporary contexts

“…It would also complement existing BRI work focusing on views from the ground for local perspectives (Oliveira et al ., 2020) and a further source of theoretical implications of BRI (c.f. Lin et al ., 2021) with a wider trajectory of alternative imaginaries and concerns.…”