Reconciling Different Approaches to Conceptualizing the Glocalization of the Belt and Road Initiative Projects
Julie Yu-Wen Chen
Abstract:
In response to the recently rising number of academic papers that empirically examine local variances in China’s Belt and Initiative (BRI) projects in various foreign lands, this paper points out the tension between attempts to theorize BRI projects. The Sino-localized approach and the assemblage theory were the two main attempts used by scholars from disparate academic disciplines to conceptualize local agency and to understand how local conditionalities, practices, and norms may affect the outcome of BRI projects. We need to examine their differences and similarities, and determine whether they are really irreconcilable. In addition, how their ontological differences lead to epistemological, methodological and analytical differences in studying BRI projects should be clarified as well.
Related Publications
-
EU-Taiwan Semiconductor Cooperation: Lopsided Priorities?
Abstract: The European Union (EU) seeks de facto closer cooperation on chip production with Taiwan. This was underlined during Foreign Minister Joseph Wu’s Europe Tour in 2021 and by a […]
-
Belt and Road Initiative: China’s Lending Hands Come with Claws
Abstract: With the economic crisis unfolding in Sri Lanka, there is a renewed interest in better understanding and analyzing the Belt and Road Initiative to prevent nations from both falling […]
-
China’s BRI Diplomacy: What it Means to India and India’s Rise
Introduction: In the post-COVID-19 world order, particularly, amidst intensifying great power competition and changing regional and global power dynamics, infrastructural advancement has taken on new and expanded significance. However, the […]
-
The Geopolitical Aftershocks of the China-Solomon Islands Security Agreement
Introduction: Chinese President Xi Jinping, shortly after taking office, remarked in 2012 that “the vast Pacific Ocean has ample space for China and the United States.” The comment was made at a […]
-
Legal Constraints of China’s BRI: The Case of Myanmar
Summary There are many consequences of China’s global Belt and Road Initiative. Amongst the least appreciated are the legal implications that arise from its investments. In Myanmar, one of the […]
-
Compatible Interests? The EU and China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Executive Summary While China and the European Union are at opposite ends of the Eurasian continent, booming trade, along with China’s rise as a global power, has made their relationship […]