REDEFINE will examine what China’s rise means for how we understand global development and, specifically, Europe’s place in it. Following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, China made more assertive moves into developed economies, which were boosted in 2013 by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) whereby massive investments in infrastructure – estimated to have reached $1.3 trillion by 2025 – promised to link China to Europe. At the same time, many European economies stagnated following the Global and Eurozone financial crises with governments cutting back on infrastructure investment and looking for new sources of finance. As such, China viewed Europe as fertile ground for new investment: between 2015 and 2016 investment levels doubled but began to plateau and then decline from 2017. The first phase of China’s expansion, couched in terms of ‘South-South development cooperation’, has been analysed largely from the perspective of international Development Studies. It promised more equal relations between China and recipient countries, but the outcomes were uneven. The aim of REDEFINE is to use the insights from international development to interrogate Chinese engagement in the heart of Europe and by doing so re-orient the Eurocentric debates in the social sciences around how we define and delimit development, who drives these processes, and what it means for societies and communities affected by such investments. REDEFINE’s agenda is important for two reasons. First, China’s presence in Europe presents opportunities and risks which we do not fully comprehend. REDEFINE will undertake fine-grained empirical analysis to understand the rationales for Chinese investment into Europe, the geopolitical dynamics surrounding these financing streams, the structuring of specific projects, and the ways in which these investments interface with national and local development policy. Second, decision-makers are uncertain how to deal with a broadening range of public and private Chinese actors. By better understanding how investment deals operate, REDEFINE will connect Chinese and European governments and corporate actors in order to influence their strategies and practices. To meet these aims REDEFINE’s objectives are: Conceptual Objectives: 1. Create a conceptual framework that unpacks the multiple drivers and actors on both the Chinese and European sides in order to analyse the organisation and outcomes of complex, multi-scalar investment flows; 2. Advance debates across disciplines regarding (a) China’s changing global role, (b) Europe’s changing economic and political strategies towards China, (c) different countries’ multi-scalar approaches to infrastructure financing, (d) the dynamics of internationally funded investment projects, and (e) more heterodox approaches to assessing project costs and benefits; 3. Contribute new theory on redefining global development; Instrumental Objectives: 4. Produce new, globally accessible data sets that capture broad trends and case-specific dynamics based on innovative quantitative and qualitative research methods, which are comparative across cases; 5. Share best practice of policy engagement regarding Chinese investments across European countries; 6. Facilitate better integration and co-ordination between public and private actors regarding major infrastructure projects; Capacity-building Objectives: 7. Enhance the capacities of doctoral students and early career researchers.
