Paper short abstract:

Using Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway as a case study, this article explores the contingent nature of "spatial fix" of China's infrastructure capital. It identifies the ambiguous position of the state-owned contracting enterprises and their role in representing the state capital and its spatial fix.

Paper long abstract:

In Kenya, the Chinese SOE contractor has been driving the development of the SGR, yet it has also constantly shifting its strategies, as the pursuit of "productiveness" gives way to mixed agendas of the enterprise, also responding to changing political circumstances in Kenya and across East Africa. Analysing these dynamics, in contrast to the analyses that highlight state centrism and structural logics of infrastructure-based "spatial fixes", the article foregrounds the contingency of "spatial fix" that shifts and transforms, as determined by the politics of host countries and changing strategic interests of specific enterprises.

The article will focus on two aspects of the Chinese state capital. First, the SGR project represents a typical "spatial fix" of infrastructure capital from China. Unlike in the resource-rich countries, Chinese capital in infrastructure in Kenya functions with autonomous logic and characteristics and therefore can be disentangled from the frameworks of extractivism. By reviewing the history of the accumulation of infrastructure capital in China, we identify the financing of the SGR and similar BRI projects as a result of "spatial fix", instead of as an exchange for natural resources. Second, we further distinguish the different stakeholders in the planning and implementation of the SGR project and identify the ambiguous relationship between the contractors and the state financiers. This helps us to understand the accumulative nature of the state-owned enterprises and their role in driving the project, as well as the political burdens that hold them back from making purely accumulative decisions.