Descripción del proyecto
Estudio del espíritu emprendedor chino en África
Los enormes proyectos chinos de infraestructuras en África incluyen puertos, redes de telecomunicaciones y ferrocarriles, pero el aumento de la presencia china también se nota en operaciones financieras no estatales. Miles de chinos están emprendiendo en África, aunque disponemos de pocos datos sobre tal afluencia. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos SURGE elaborará una etnografía urbana de la financierización china de Adís Abeba (fabricación) y Nairobi (servicios de alto nivel). El proyecto hará balance de las zonas económicas especiales, las nuevas ciudades, los núcleos tecnológicos y las explotaciones planeadas estratégicamente. Los resultados nos ofrecerán una nueva visión de la evolución de la estructura urbana y la situación económica a través del capital chino privado. En particular, SURGE analizará la diversidad del capital chino en África y el modo en que las ciudades africanas captan y aprovechan esas inversiones.
Objetivo
SURGE is a qualitative, ethnographic study of urban transformation driven by private Chinese capitals in Africa.
Current research on Africa-China relationships focuses on major government-driven investments, such as the Belt and Road initiative, which is the most recent example of China’s increasing presence in Africa. Scholarly attention is thus directed toward the state and the continental scale, overlooking private and provincial Chinese investments in Africa and their consequences on cities. Very little is known about non-state-driven financial operations of Chinese entrepreneurs, or about the responses of African cities to the influx of Chinese capitals.
SURGE addresses these knowledge gaps with an urban ethnography of the sinofinancialization of two African cities that offer two different models of China’s involvement in Africa: Addis Ababa, for manufacturing, and Nairobi, for high-value services. The research will explore the key urban sites of these financial operations: special economic zones, new towns, technology hubs and master-planned estates, charting the spatial and economic consequences of private Chinese capitals in the making of 21st-century African urban worlds. Methodologically, SURGE will be a multi-sited ethnography of financialization and will combine two disciplines: economic geography and social studies of finance.
The overall aim of SURGE is to contribute to postcolonial urban studies, by foregrounding the diversity of Chinese capital in Africa, and the agency of African cities in attracting and harnessing these investments for purposes of social justice and sustainability that are at the forefront of urban restructuring in the continent.
Ámbito científico
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Régimen de financiación
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
10129 Torino
Italia