Event Wednesday! Infrastructure and the Remaking of Asia
November 9th 4:00 - 5:30 PM
Hale 230
A book launch for the ChinaMade project, featuring a panel discussion with CAS Visiting Scholar Max Hirsh, Gökçe Günel (Rice University), CAS Faculty Director Tim Oakes, and Professor Emily Yeh (CU Geography).
In the 21st century, infrastructure has undergone a seismic shift from West to East. Once concentrated in Europe and North America, global infrastructure production today is focused squarely on Asia.
Infrastructure and the Remaking of Asia investigates the deeper implications of that pivot to the East. Written by leading international infrastructure experts, it demonstrates how new roads, airports, pipelines, and cables are changing Asian economies, societies, and geopolitics—from the Bosporus to Beijing, and from Indonesia to the Arctic. Ten tightly interwoven case studies powerfully illustrate infrastructure’s leading role in three global paradigm shifts: climate change, digitalization, and China’s emergence as a superpower.
Combining social science methods with mapping techniques from the design professions, the book establishes a dialogue between academic research on infrastructure and the professional insights of those responsible for infrastructure’s planning, production, and operation. This mixed method sheds light on the mindset of practitioners, while also attending to the materiality and agency of the infrastructures that they create.
We apply that method to a detailed analysis of transport, energy, telecommunication, and resource extraction projects in China, the Middle East, and Central and Southeast Asia. The book synthesizes research on infrastructure from six academic fields, while making those insights accessible to a wider audience of students, professionals, and the general public.
Edited by Max Hirsh and Till Mostowlansky, Infrastructure and the Remaking of Asia is published by the University of Hawaii Press with the generous support of the Henry Luce Foundation, the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, and the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Book link: