We introduce this symposium on the politics and spaces of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, locating the papers as concept explorations resting on case studies that contextualize and historicize Be...

Introduction: Research agendas raised by the Belt and Road Initiative:

Transnational labour migration and livelihoods in rural Asia: Tracing patterns of agrarian and forest change

Chinese Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Africa are part of the Belt and Road Initiative. They account for a fledgling research area in International Relations, with not much research on the topic. The authors regard traditional approaches in research of SEZs as incapable of grasping the difference between domestic (designed by the state on its own territory) and foreign (designed by a foreign state) SEZs. The concept of territoriality, though applicable only to foreign SEZs, has little to offer in terms of generating new knowledge. The research paper endeavours to offer new theoretical and conceptual frameworks for the study of foreign SEZs. The research is based on concepts of hegemony by different schools of thought, including Hegemonic Stability Theory, the three types of hegemony by Yan Xuetong and Neo-Gramscianism. The authors introduce the concept of “local hegemony”. The authors also highlight the fact that most foreign SEZs emerge in territories of limited statehood (or create them). In order to prove vitality of the concept, comparative research of China’s SEZs in Mauritius and Zambia is conducted. The authors point out relatively poor institutional development of Zambia and the existence of stable democratic institutions in Mauritius. The success of the Chinese SEZ in Zambia is also partially attributed to copper mining. Deriving from economic and institutional empirical data the authors try to detect success conditions of SEZs and analyze the related spillover effects that contribute to the development of African nations. The reasons behind the failure of the Chinese SEZ in Mauritius are traced. Authors conclude that the concept of local hegemony is suitable for studying foreign SEZs and suggest that zones of local hegemony could be sustainable and effective in terms of development.

/pdf/local-hegemony-china-s-special-economic-zones-in-mauritius-103yxu9aj1.pdf

Local Hegemony: China’s Special Economic Zones in Mauritius and Zambia

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/anti.12721

The Dialectic of Neoliberal Exploitation and Cultural‐Sexual Exclusion: From Special Economic Zones to LGBT‐Free Zones in Poland

Special economic zones (SEZs) are important in Laos due to their ability to attract foreign investment, realize industrialization, and promote economic globalization. Based on Laos’ SEZs in operation, this study explored land-use intensity, structural evolution and land-use efficiency in Laos’ SEZs via the land-use dynamic degree, information entropy, super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) and gray relational analysis (GRA). The study determined that the total land-use area in Laos’ SEZs continuously increased from 2014 to 2020. The land-use intensity changes in the SEZs can be divided into three types, i.e., high intensity, medium intensity and low intensity, and most SEZs belonged to the medium-intensity type. The proportion of land used in production systems in Laos’ SEZs increased the most, and the proportion of infrastructure land notably decreased. The overall information entropy of the land-use structure exhibited an initial downward and then an upward trend. In 2018, the land-use efficiency in the Savan-Seno SEZ, Vientiane Industrial and Trade Area, Dongphosy SEZ, and Golden Triangle SEZ was relatively optimal. The basic factors of the industrial space and the factors reflecting international cooperation attributes were highly related to the land-use efficiency in Laos’ SEZs.

Land-Use Change and Efficiency in Laos’ Special Economic Zones

Territorial (In) Coherence: Labour and Special Economic Zones in Laos's Border Manufacturing

\n Laos’s position at the centre of the Southeast Asian mainland has entailed peripherality to regional loci of power. Its geography of peripheral centrality has however resulted in Laos becoming a realm of contestation between powerful neighbours. The analysis traces the construction of Laos within a regional space from pre-colonial times to contemporary special economic zones. Laos has been produced through mobility, foreign actors’ attempts to reorient space to their sphere of influence, and transnational class relations incorporating Lao workers and peasants, Lao elites and foreign powers. These elements manifest within current special economic zone projects.

https://brill.com/downloadpdf/journals/ejea/17/2/article-p228_5.pdf

James Alan Brown

Papers

Territorial (In) Coherence: Labour and Special Economic Zones in Laos's Border Manufacturing

Laos’s Peripheral Centrality in Southeast Asia: Mobility, Labour and Regional Integration