Anthology on China's role in Africa's "Railway Renaissance" published

As part of the New Silk Road Initiative, China has invested heavily in infrastructure in the so-called Global South over the past decade - with far-reaching political, economic and socio-cultural implications. In the New Regionalisms series, Routledge has now published an anthology entitled Africa's Railway Renaissance: The role and impact of China. The book examines the history and political economy as well as the socio-cultural and political impact of Chinese-funded railway projects on the African continent. One of the co-editors of the book is Dr Tim Zajontz, Research Associate at the Department of Political Science with a focus on International Politics at Technical University Dresden, co-edited. 

The anthology problematises, among other things, the financing of Chinese-African rail projects and their impact on the debt of African states, as well as the regionalisation of African rail transport routes and their function within China's Belt and Road Initiative. The book project involved researchers from Africa, China, Europe and the Americas. They provided cross-disciplinary analyses from political economy, historical, geographical, sociological and post-colonial perspectives. Case studies of rail projects in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia provide detailed empirical insights into Sino-African cooperation in rail infrastructure at different levels of analysis. Regional studies from East Africa, West Africa and Southern Africa address persistent problems in the regional integration of Africa's railway network. 

The book highlights opportunities and challenges in Africa's post-COVID-19 political economy and should be of interest to all those concerned with Africa-China relations and their implications for economic development, with infrastructure policy, with spatial planning and governance, or with political economy in the transport sector.

Book Details:

Link to the book