Between the commons and the cosmos: The sacred politics of the BRI in Southeast Asia and beyond

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

6-2022

Abstract

This paper explores how political ecology can advance existing understandings of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its effects, and how the BRI can contribute to recent shifts in the study of political ecology. It argues that the idea of infrastructural overlap can sensitize discourse to the ways in which the materializations of the BRI, as a series of infrastructural megaprojects, intersect with other infrastructural formations, such as the environment and religion. By focusing on the effects of the BRI on resource- dependent communities located between the ‘commons’ and the ‘cosmos’ we can appreciate the sense of existential crisis that is triggered and exacerbated by China’s world-building agenda in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Keywords

Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Southeast Asia, commons, cosmos, sacred politics, infrastructure

Discipline

Asian Studies | Infrastructure | Political Science

Research Areas

Humanities

Publication

Area Development and Policy

First Page

1

Last Page

17

ISSN

2379-2949

Identifier

10.1080/23792949.2022.2081586

Publisher

Routledge

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/23792949.2022.2081586

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