Introduction: Research agendas raised by the Belt and Road Initiative

TLDR

Belt and Road Initiative is a rapidly expanding field of debate, often framed at geopolitical abstraction, with research exploring its cultural, economic, spatial, political, and infrastructural interfaces. The symposium aims to present concept explorations of the Belt and Road Initiative through case studies that contextualize and historicize it. The first paper examines the historiography of the Silk Road idea as a condition of possibility for the Belt and Road Initiative. The papers encourage further investigations of the Belt and Road Initiative’s dynamics and outline key research agendas across culture, economy, place, space, politics, and infrastructure.

Abstract

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 Belt and Road Initiative. In the case of the first paper that follows, this includes an exploration of the historiography of one of Belt and Road Initiative’s conditions of possibility, the Silk Road idea. We chart a burgeoning field of debate about Belt and Road Initiative, most often operating at broad levels of geopolitical abstraction. The papers here encourage further investigations of Belt and Road Initiative’s dynamics. Such work holds promise for wider theorizing of the interfaces between culture, economy, place, space, politics and infrastructure. Our closing remarks sketch key research agendas in these domains in the light of Belt and Road Initiative.