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Charlotte Goodburn
(King's College London)
Jan Knoerich
(King's College London)
Format:
Panel
Streams:
Urbanisation
Sessions:
Thursday 7 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Chinese-style Economic Zones, Policy Mobilities, and the Implications for Urbanising Futures.
Panel P43 at conference DSA2022: Just sustainable futures in an urbanising and mobile world.
This panel examines the urban development effects of Chinese-style economic zones across the developing world, the complex mechanisms by which the Chinese experience is translated elsewhere, and the interactions with local settings. It includes case studies from India, Africa and South-East Asia.
Long Abstract:
As a result of China's economic success, other developing nations have turned to the "China model", notably the creation of export-oriented "special economic zones" (SEZs). China's SEZs produced remarkable impacts for structural transformation and urbanisation, including expansion of infrastructure and large-scale changes to urban living and governance. To what extent is China's experience reproduced elsewhere? What are the roles of Chinese and host states, firms, and other local or transnational actors in this policy mobility? What are the effects of translating Chinese zones into new and often highly divergent contexts? These are fundamental questions for understanding new patterns of global development, including urbanisation, that have been neglected by much existing literature on economic zones, focusing solely on economic impacts.
This panel aims to address these questions through case studies of Chinese-style zones and their urbanisation impacts across the developing world. These include India, where policymakers have transformed export zones into new city-style SEZs inspired by China, with divergent effects for migrant workers and local communities; Africa, where China's SOEs, Chinese private entrepreneurs and local authorities have jointly shaped the emergence of new urbanisms; and South-East Asia, where China's central state has established SEZs with major impacts for city-building and infrastructural development. Drawing on such cases, the panel will critically assess how China's experience may provide lessons for global development, the mechanisms through which this occurs, and the potential outcomes for urbanising futures in the distinct institutional, political, social and cultural contexts of the host countries.
This paper focuses on the role of private Chinese firms in developing industrial parks, and with them new urban-industrial linkages, in Ethiopia and Uganda. In so doing it speaks to broader debates about the urban-industrial nexus.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00420980211007800
Paper long abstract:
The relationship between industrialisation and urban development is subject to assumptions based on experiences in the global North, with little research on how it plays out in countries undergoing urbanisation and industrialisation today. In the context of recent excitement about China's role in stimulating an 'industrial revolution' in Africa, we examine how Chinese zones in Ethiopia and Uganda are influencing the urban-industrial nexus. We argue that Chinese zones are key sites of urban-industrial encounter, but these dynamics are not primarily driven by the government officials that dominate the 'policy mobilities' literature, nor by the State-Owned Enterprises usually associated with Chinese activity overseas. Rather, they are emerging through the activities of inexperienced private Chinese actors who do not even operate in the worlds of urban policy. Faced with government histories and capacities that vastly differ from China's, directly replicating the Chinese experience is virtually impossible; yet the tentative and improvisational relationships between Chinese firms, African government authorities and other local actors are gradually moulding new urbanisms into shape. The piecemeal bargaining and negotiation that unfolds through these relationships bridges some of the gaps between industrialisation and planning, but this cannot compensate for the governance of the urban-industrial nexus at higher scales.
Chinese enterprises played an instrumental role in initiating and facilitating African industrial policy implementation. Based on fieldwork in China and Ethiopia, this paper provides a unique angle on the agency of Chinese companies as 'policy diffusers' in African economic zone implementation.
Paper long abstract:
[this paper has a co-author Dr. Hong Zhang] Developing countries around the world have adopted industrial parks as a tool for attracting investment and promoting development, and African countries are among the latest to join this trend. Existing research on the foreign influence of African industrial policy concentrate on the foreign government or international organizations' role in policy advising. This research finds that Chinese enterprises played an instrumental role in initiating and facilitating industrial policy implementation, a previously understudied area. With a particular focus on the agency of Chinese companies as the "policy diffusers," we develop a typology of Chinese companies involved in the development of African industrial parks. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Ethiopia and China, we study Ethiopia's industrial park initiation and implementation, using Hawassa Industrial Park as a case study. We find that the several crucial features of Ethiopia's industrial park policy could be attributed to the mediating role of the Chinese company involved. This particular group of construction and engineering contractors are distinguished by their long history of operating in Africa dating back to the 1970s, and are increasingly active in developing industrial parks in Africa and beyond. We argue that the profound impact of these companies as policy diffusers is due to their structural position as "national champions" in the Chinese political economy, which affords them unique capacity in mobilizing resources from China.
This paper compares the development trajectories and urbanizing impacts of Chinese OETCZs in multiple African countries. It explores how industrial and urban policies are shared between Chinese provinces and host African governments, resulting in different modalities and outcomes of Chinese OETCZs.
Paper long abstract:
The recent ministerial summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2021 pledged continued Chinese investment in building Overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones (OETCZs) across Africa to deepen and advance China-Africa cooperation in diverse sectors. Yet, despite high scholarly and policy attention on the rise of Chinese OETCZs globally, there is limited knowledge regarding the mechanisms and relationship to shape zones' local development and influence. This paper addresses this gap by comparing the growth trajectories and urbanizing impacts of the first generation of Chinese OETCZs in Africa. It identifies the distinctive pathways through which industrial and urban policies are shared between Chinese provinces and host African governments, leading to different modalities and outcomes of Chinese OETCZs. Results highlight the internationalization of sub-national development models from China, which problematizes the methodological nationalism in understanding China's global engagement. The host African governments, rather than passive recipients of Chinese model, are also proactive and critical players in shaping the fate of OETCZs and Chinese investors operating in the zones. The comparative case study aims to shed light on the nature of Chinese zone model as well as the contingency and variability in their local embeddedness and developmental impacts.
Our comparative case study paper examines two Chinese-invested industrial parks in Indonesia and Malaysia to understand how BRI-facilitated Chinese investments bring specific domestic models of development that are then adapted to the local context.
Paper long abstract:
Chinese-led industrial parks provide a clear example of China's state-facilitated development. Our paper discusses this type of Chinese infrastructure and analyses its model in relation to the Chinese experience domestically and overseas. By examining the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (Central Sulawesi, Indonesia) and the Malaysia China Kuantan Industrial Park (Pahang, Malaysia), we argue that through the BRI, China is exporting its successful domestic models of infrastructure development, which are then localized by host country dynamics and contestations. While the Chinese firms bring about the intended efficiencies of vastly integrated industrial parks through their linkages, key aspects and goals of the parks are also shaped by host country actors. In other words, industrial parks are products of the interaction between Chinese and host country goals, norms, and mobilizations. As both parks were located in relatively undeveloped areas, Chinese firms brought in new technologies and expanded their presence in both countries, attaining foreign investment incentives, cheap labor, and new competitive edge. Firms also carried a "developmental" model that prioritises economic development over environmental and social protection, leading to ecological degradation, limited labor mobility, and transformation of the local landscapes. Overall, our analysis shows how the state-led model of Chinese industrial parks exported through the BRI is localized in each country by being combined with local norms, and at times through local contestations.
We draw on fieldwork from one Indian SEZ, directly modelled on a Chinese zone, to explore the multiple ways in which China's SEZ "model" is "translated" into and interacts with local Indian contexts, producing new forms of rural-urban development for both local communities and migrant workers.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines the development and impacts of an anonymized south Indian "industrial city", directly modelled on a Chinese counterpart. The privately-operated city was founded in the 2000s as a key example of India's new-style Special Economic Zones (SEZs). These represent a national shift, motivated by the success of China's SEZs, from older enclave-style urban "export processing zones" to new integrated townships in (former) rural areas. Drawing on fieldwork in the city in 2018, the paper explores how the Chinese SEZ "model" interacts with specific local contexts to produce new forms of rural-urban development. Specifically, it compares three issues seen in both Chinese and Indian cases: first, the city's spatial planning, and the consequences for local agriculture; second, gendered hiring practices of firms in the city, and the implications for rural-urban migration; third, the incorporation of local rural villages into the city, and the long-term prospects for their development. These three aspects represent different mechanisms through which the Chinese "model" is translated into the South Asian context, by different actors, with different outcomes. In line with recent policy mobilities scholarship, the paper argues that "models" cannot be straightforwardly replicated, and calls for more attention to the outcomes of attempted replication, in order to understand the development implications arising from selective, complex, multi-level adaptation of a Chinese "model" and its interaction with local contexts. It highlights important implications, not only for South Asia but also for other countries modelling their SEZ development strategy on China.
E-paper: this Paper will not be presented, but read in advance and discussed
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Jan Knoerich (King's College London)
Short Abstract:
This panel examines the urban development effects of Chinese-style economic zones across the developing world, the complex mechanisms by which the Chinese experience is translated elsewhere, and the interactions with local settings. It includes case studies from India, Africa and South-East Asia.
Long Abstract:
As a result of China's economic success, other developing nations have turned to the "China model", notably the creation of export-oriented "special economic zones" (SEZs). China's SEZs produced remarkable impacts for structural transformation and urbanisation, including expansion of infrastructure and large-scale changes to urban living and governance. To what extent is China's experience reproduced elsewhere? What are the roles of Chinese and host states, firms, and other local or transnational actors in this policy mobility? What are the effects of translating Chinese zones into new and often highly divergent contexts? These are fundamental questions for understanding new patterns of global development, including urbanisation, that have been neglected by much existing literature on economic zones, focusing solely on economic impacts.
This panel aims to address these questions through case studies of Chinese-style zones and their urbanisation impacts across the developing world. These include India, where policymakers have transformed export zones into new city-style SEZs inspired by China, with divergent effects for migrant workers and local communities; Africa, where China's SOEs, Chinese private entrepreneurs and local authorities have jointly shaped the emergence of new urbanisms; and South-East Asia, where China's central state has established SEZs with major impacts for city-building and infrastructural development. Drawing on such cases, the panel will critically assess how China's experience may provide lessons for global development, the mechanisms through which this occurs, and the potential outcomes for urbanising futures in the distinct institutional, political, social and cultural contexts of the host countries.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 7 July, 2022, -Zhengli Huang (Tongji University) Tom Goodfellow (University of Sheffield)
Yuan Wang
Ding Fei (Cornell University) Chuan Liao (Arizona State University)
Angela Tritto (HKUST)
Charlotte Goodburn (King's College London) Jan Knoerich (King's College London)