How Chinese Capital Alters Center-Periphery Relations in Kenya - Elisa Gambino

07/31/20 • 36 min

How does Chinese capital alter center-periphery relations in Kenya?
Can peripheral groups have meaningful agency with Chinese state entities?
Who determines, and what is considered "local" in local content agreements built into Chinese-financed infrastructure projects?
On this Episode, Erik sits down Elisa Gambino to speak about her forthcoming paper entitled: "Chinese participation in Kenyan Transport Infrastructure: Reshaping Power-Geometries" that looks to answer these questions and more by using Kenya's Lamu Port as a case study.
Elisa Gambino is a doctoral researcher on the African Governance and Space project at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre of African Studies. You can read her prior writing on labor relations at the Lamu port here https://theasiadialogue.com/2020/02/26/job-insecurity-labour-contestation-and-everyday-resistance-at-the-chinese-built-lamu-port-site-in-kenya/
Recommendations:
Elisa: 1) Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness by Miriam Driessen
2) Invisible China: A Journey Through Ethnic Borderlands by Colin Legerton and Jacob Rawson
Erik: 1) Putting a Dollar Amount on China's Loans in the Developing World by Huang Yufang and Deborah Brautigam
2) For the American audience: Moving to a mid-tier American city. They are more dynamic than coastal cities give them credit for and one can actually afford to live in them! Added bonus if you move to a swing state!

Thanks for listening!

Thanks for listening!

Previous Episode

The History of Ethnic Chinese Garment Manufacturing in South Africa - Dr. Xu Liang

In this episode, Juliet and Erik sit down with Dr. Xu Liang from Peking University's School of International Studies to talk about his latest research that chronicles historical and modern-day ethnic Chinese garment production in Newcastle, South Africa.
Dr. Xu Liang's latest article "Factory, family and industrial frontier: A Socioeconomic study of Chinese clothing firms in Newcastle, South Africa" can be found here. (link)

Thanks for listening!

Next Episode

Green Development or Greenwashing? Tyler Harlan on China's Green Finance, Green Energy, and Green Cooperation

In this episode, Dr. Tyler Harlan breaks down the discourses vs. reality of the green turn in the Belt and Road Initiative since Xi Jinping announced it in 2017. He describes the state of knowledge and realities of implementation of the three main aspects of the 'Green Belt and Road': green finance, green energy, and green development cooperation. He also reflects on his research on rural development within China and on China's renewable energy investments across the Mekong Region to shed light on specific cases explored.
Check out his article, entitled "Green development or greenwashing? A political ecology perspective on China’s green Belt and Road" here or get in touch via twitter (@beltandroadpod) for help accessing a copy!
Recommendations:
Tyler
1) The puzzle of China’s missing solar and wind finance along the Belt and Road Parts 1 & 2 (Panda Paw Dragon Claw, Ma Tianjie)
2) Reports on how hydropower could be reduced/changed/replaced with investment in solar and wind: Brain Eyler on Chinese Solar Diplomacy in China Dialogue and Jeff Opperman of WWF on hydropower on free flowing rivers
Erik
1) Shaping the Future of Power: Knowledge Production and Network-Building in China-Africa Relations (latest book by Lina Benabdallah)
2) Killing Eve - Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Juliet
1) Forgotten Kingdom: Nine Years in Yunnan 1939-48 (by Peter Goulyar)