China/Europe and the Changing Global Order seminar series: Pluriversal geographies: Africa-China agricultural cooperation

In collaboration with York University and CHERN network, The Open University presents a monthly webinar series featuring graduate students and early career scholars

Come along to our seminar on the 22 June from 12:30 to 14:00 (GMT) and hear Dr Mariasole Pepa from the University of Padova, Italy, and Professor Giles Mohan, REDEFINE project, Chair, FASS at The Open University (Discussant)

Title:

Pluriversal geographies: Africa-China agricultural cooperation

Abstract:

The consolidation of China in Africa led to the urgency to rethink beyond binary constructions (North/South; developed/underdeveloped) which have traditionally dominated the (colonial) geographies of development. Yet, the rise of BRICS countries and South-South Cooperation question the notion of the South, in other words, where is the South? (Gonlazez-Vicente, 2019). Post-development debates have contributed to highlighting the inability of current geographic spatial framing in illuminating the reality of pluriversal geographies in the 21st century (Ziai, 2019). Still, which role is played by Africa-China relations in this current debate, and how critical approaches to development and geography can help us to re-imagine polycentric geographies?

On the one hand, the consolidation of Africa-China relations under the South-South cooperation umbrella reorients the global aid architecture in a process of Southernization of development (Mawdsley, 2019). On the other hand, the competition, cooptation, and convergence of practices and discourse between North-South Cooperation and South-South Cooperation are reproducing dynamics of ‘double’ dependencies based on asymmetrical power relations (Taylor, 2014). Thinking through post-development approaches, this seminar presents the case of Africa-China agricultural cooperation and the impact of the Chinese Agricultural Demonstration Centers (ATDCs). In particular, Chinese agricultural development discourses performed at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will be confronted with the reality on the ground of the ATDCs in Tanzania and Sudan. The seminar aims to provide a space to reflect on the extent to which extent China represents an ‘alternative to development’ or is concurring in reinforcing the notion of development as modernization.

Register for the event via Eventbrite