The Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellowship in Infrastructure and Sustainable Communities, supported by the Equal Opportunities Foundation

Contribution to CISL’s core research themes

About the project

The overarching aim of this project is to explore how BRI-driven urban transformation may reconfigure the patterns of social, spatial and environmental inequality and (in)justice. Specific research aims include: 

1. To explore the social and environmental impacts of selected BRI projects and investigate to what extent these impacts are factored into the planning and design of these projects.

2. To analyse how different actors influence and shape final outcomes. Emphasis will be given to the role of power relations, geopolitics and the politics of scale. 

3. To investigate issues of social, spatial and environmental change and inequality in terms of the (unequal) distribution of social, economic and environmental costs and benefits, access to public space, nature resources and land, and changes in space, livelihoods and social relations. 

4. To consider how differing socio-economic, political and cultural contexts affect the implementation of BRI projects across the Global South and North. 

5. To offer policy recommendations supporting sustainability and justice with an emphasis at the local level. 

Scientists, policymakers and communities increasingly emphasise that involved countries should urgently consider the profound socio-spatial and socio-ecological transformation being driven by China’s BRI. Although much has been discussed about its economic and geopolitical implications, the way the initiative may reinforce social, spatial and environmental inequality has yet to be considered. This project will offer one of the first analyses of the links between socio-spatial and socio-ecological change, inequality and justice for selected BRI projects across the Global South and North and the ways these transform places and livelihoods. Particular emphasis is given to the ways in which BRI projects transform urban geographies across the world, an aspect of the BRI that remains fundamentally underexplored. The project thus addresses some of the leading sustainability challenges of the 21st century; namely, how to support socio-ecological sustainability and justice under conditions of a historically unparalleled infrastructure rush and construction boom, especially at the local level. Its goal is not only to inform decision-makers but also to empower local communities whose livelihoods are being fundamentally transformed by the New Silk Road.

By drawing on theories and methods from human geography, urban studies, political economy and political ecology, and by conducting an extensive literature review alongside both on the ground and virtual ethnographic research, this project has developed a set of ground-breaking empirical data to create a high-impact science-policy and science-society interface. Specific activities have included:

1. An extensive desk study/review of the policy, scientific and grey literature on the BRI from all relevant actors and institutions. 

2. Ethnographic research on emblematic cases capturing people’s experience of loss and transformation of places and natures. Case studies included two cases in Asia (Nepal, Sri Lanka), two in Europe (Greece, UK) and one in Latin America (Peru). The selection of cases spanning three continents has allowed the project to explore how implementation of BRI projects can correspond or differ to those in other contexts.  

3. Key actor interviews across governance scales. This has involved semi-structured interviews with policymakers, regulators, local governments and planning authorities, businesses and academics. 

4. Collaborative research with community groups and key participants in BRI projects to promote links between universities and civil society, thereby achieving the highest level of impact at the local level and empowering local communities. 

This work is supported by a philanthropic gift from Equal Opportunities Foundation.

Research Team

Hitesh Pant, Research Assistant

Hitesh Pant contributed in the Fellowship by exploring BRI projects in Asia and Africa. He is  currently pursuing a PhD in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. His project seeks to reconstruct the history of seed sovereignty within the Via Campesina, the International Peasants Movement. He is deeply interested in better understanding the conflicts erupting within conservation governance. He has previously worked to build community resilience against large infrastructure projects in Nepal, and also advised conservation organisations on alternative pathways for inclusive research and action.

Alejandra Pizarro, Research Assistant

Alejandra is interested in exploring human-nature relationships in capitalist societies and the potential for radical post-capitalism alternatives. She is a Research Assistant supporting BRI research through desk study and ethnography on case studies around the world, particularly in Peru and with local actors and communities. She holds an MPhil in Conservation Leadership from the University of Cambridge and is currently a PhD student in Geography and Sustainable Development at the University of St. Andrews.

Cambridge Humanities Research Grant 2020 entitled “Exploring the links between social-environmental change and inequality in the New Silk Road”.