The Politics of Infrastructure Maintenance and Decay w/ The Roadwork Asia Project's Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi and Zarina Urmanbetova
Listen now
Description
Juliet and Erik are joined by Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi and Zarina Urmanbetova of Roadwork Asia to discuss China's road infrastructure projects in Central Asia and their research at Roadwork Asia, including their article on infrastructural connections across the Toghuz-Toro district of central Kyrgystan Welcome and Unwelcome Connections: Travelling Post-Soviet Roads in Kyrgyzstan. Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi is a professor of social anthropology at the University of Fribourg and head of the ROADWORK project. She focuses on China and the Sino-Central Asian borderlands. Her recent research explores the nexus of transport infrastructure, settler colonialism, and processes of state territorialization in northwest China. She has also expanded her research into infrastructure maintenance and how temporalities of materials, investment, discourses, government agendas, ecosystems, and humans affect the social life of infrastructure in the Sino-Central Asian borderlands. Zarina Urmanbetova is a social anthropologist from Kyrgyzstan. She has worked on projects for UN Women Kyrgyzstan, Urban Initiatives, the Research Institute of Islamic Studies in Bishkek, and the Analytical Center Polis Asia. She holds a BA from the Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University and a MA in social anthropology from Hacettepe University in Turkey. At ROADWORK, she focuses on the social and cultural life of roads in central Kyrgyzstan.  Recommendations: Agnieszka  Roadsides,  an open-access journal designated to be a forum devoted to exploring the social, cultural, and political life of infrastructureBelt & Road in Global Perspective, a project of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of TorontoZarina 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible documentary on NetflixErik Bish Bosch album by Scott WalkerJuliet How Sand Mining Threatens a Way of Life in Southeast Asia. National Geographic. Photos & reporting by Sim Chi Yin, writing by Vince Beiser. March 2018.Satellites Spy on Sand Mining in the Mekong by Alka Tripathy-Lang, Dec 2021. The Messy Business of Sand Mining Explained. Marco Hernandez, Simon Scarr, Katie Daigle. Feb 2021. 
More Episodes
Leland Lazarus joins Juliet to talk about Chinese and Taiwanese engagement in Latin America and the Caribbean, from official diplomatic activities to BRI projects to transnational organized crime.  Leland Lazarus is the Associate Director of National Security at Florida International...
Published 04/22/24
Published 04/22/24
Bowen Gu joins Juliet and Erik on the podcast to talk about environmental justice and China's coal investments in Indonesia, with a focus on Gu's recent paper: Black gold and green BRI: A grounded analysis of Chinese investment in coal-fired power plants in Indonesia (2024). Bowen Gu is a PhD...
Published 03/08/24