Infrastructural splintering along the BRI: Catholic political ecologies and the fractious futures of Sri Lanka’s littoral spaces

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2-2024

Abstract

This article considers the ways in which the material infrastructures of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) intersect with other infrastructural formations, and how the resulting overlaps can trigger processes of what I call “infrastructural splintering”. These processes cause infrastructure to be experienced in differentiating ways, creating divisive politics where there might once have been unity. Embracing these politics as an analytical starting point undermines the techno-material stability of the BRI, and reveals its more-than-material affects. I illustrate these ideas by developing a case study of the effects of the China-backed Colombo Port City project on Catholic fishing communities that are dependent upon the aquatic commons for survival. The construction of the Port City has brought about significant aquatic pollution and ecosystem destruction, and public erasure by Colombo’s political elites. Complicating matters is the dominance of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka’s littoral spaces, which has become divided by a universalist politico-ecological consciousness imposed by the Vatican, a corruptible local hierarchy, and environmental activists that engage communities by working through the Church’s sacred infrastructures. By working through these processes of infrastructural splintering, I consider how the BRI has caused Sri Lanka’s littoral spaces to face increasingly fractious futures.

Keywords

Infrastructural splintering, littoral space, Catholic political ecologies, urban futures, Sri Lanka

Discipline

Asian Studies | Infrastructure | Urban Studies and Planning

Research Areas

Integrative Research Areas

Areas of Excellence

Growth in Asia

Publication

Modern Asian Studies

Volume

58

Issue

5

First Page

1407

Last Page

1428

ISSN

0026-749X

Identifier

10.1017/S0026749X24000118

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X24000118

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