China/Europe and the Changing Global Order seminar series: The Chinese influence on land policy in Ethiopia by Miriam Driessen

China’s emergence and growing footprint across the world has spawned much debate on its implications for the global order. To analyse these debates and illuminate the underlying issues, The Open University’s 'Reorienting development: The dynamics and effects of Chinese infrastructure investments in Europe (REDEFINE)' project; the University of York’s 'The Politics of Chinese Investments in Europe (PoliCIE)'; and the China in Europe Research Network (CHERN) are co-organising this series of events. We envisage these events to offer a platform for learning and sharing for students and early career researchers in the social sciences and allied disciplines.

The series is informed by four themes, as below:

• To what extent does China’s growing presence in and engagement with the global North and global South reshape the liberal international order?
• What does China’s rise do for concepts like the global South and how can we more effectively study the political economies of societies of the so-called global South?
• What does China’s entry into Europe mean for European identity and how can we more effectively study the political economies of European societies?
• What methodological opportunities and challenges does researching China in Europe pose for collaborative knowledge creation?

Each event will typically entail a presentation by a graduate student or early career scholar followed by comments by an established academic.

Audience Q&A will follow

Register for this event via Eventbrite

Come along to our seminar on the 6th October from 12:30 (BST) and hear Dr Miriam Driessen from The University of Oxford speak on

'The Chinese influence on land policy in Ethiopia'

Abstract

Chinese firms have borne a conspicuous mark on the Ethiopian landscape since their entry as contractors in the 1990s and as investors in the 2000s. Some of the influences are highly visible, others much less so. Based on collaborative research with Mekonnen F. Ayano, this talk explores the silent bearings of Chinese capital, backed by state power, on land law and policy in Ethiopia. When Chinese investment in Ethiopia took off in the mid-2000s, the Ethiopian government enacted two consecutive proclamations that standardized land laws and lifted restrictions on the acquisition of rural land for development, including infrastructure construction and investment in agriculture, mining, and manufacturing. These laws laid the foundation of a land valuation and expropriation system that is conspicuously similar to its Chinese counterpart. Tracing the evolution of land laws in post-1991 Ethiopia, alongside Addis Abeba’s evolving diplomatic relations with Beijing, we ask why and how China came to play a decisive role in this process. More generally, we reveal the power of Chinese capital in shaping national policies in Ethiopia and beyond.

Speaker

Miriam Driessen is an anthropologist of China and Ethiopia working on labour, migration and development. She is the author of Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia (HKUP, 2019).