Lecture | Lunch Research Seminar
Global China in Urban Europe: Understanding the Role of Chinese Actors, Media, Cultures and Capital in European Urban Development
- Date
- Tuesday 3 December 2024
- Time
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 2.37
Registration
All are welcome, however please register in advance at l-peg@hum.leidenuniv.nl to receive a copy of the draft and lunch.
Abstract
Dr. Morris will share with us the conceptual framework for his new project CHINA.EU, which has recently won the ERC starting grant.
Abstract: In this talk I will explore the conceptual framework and contextual grounding of the ERC project, CHINA.EU. The concept of global China understands China’s influence as manifested in outward flows of capital, infrastructure, migrants, media, cultural programmes and international and civil society engagement, yet for an area of study that purports to be ‘global’ scholarship in the field of global China has focused almost exclusively on the role of Chinese citizens, Chinese institutions, and carriers of Chinese capital (hereafter, Chinese actors) and Chinese capital in developing countries and the Global South. To combat this narrow view of global China, China.EU takes an innovative approach to the study of global China that pivots scholarship on global China to the Global North. The project moves beyond a methodologically nationalist and state-led understanding of global China, to instead focus on how global China, as understood through Chinese actors and capital, is (i) urban, (ii) cultural, and (iii) digital – often simultaneously all three. Through fieldwork methods, interviews, and social media analysis methods, CHINA.EU analyses the heterogenous role of Chinese actors and capital in three European contexts: Dusseldorf & the Ruhr Area, Paris, and Athens. During the talk I will expand on the conceptual framework that brings global China, urbanism, cultural studies, and digital media together through a strategic relational approach that builds on the work of Jessop et al. (2008). I am providing the long-form research proposal I used for the ERC as a starting point but during the talk I will build on this. I would be particularly interested in feedback and criticism from a political economy position, as this is definitely the weakest aspect of the proposal. I am also happy to discuss the ERC project in a broader sense with people looking to put together their own projects.