Elia Apostolopoulou, Han Cheng, Jonathan Silver and Alan Wiig eds. The Material Geographies of the Belt and Road Initiative: Infrastructures and Political Ecologies on the New Silk Road – Bristol University Press, November 2025 (print and open access)

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), commonly called the New Silk Road, is a huge infrastructure project currently revitalising or creating new trading routes and large developments across the globe. It is estimated to cost up to US$8 trillion and impact more than 65% of the world’s population. 

This book explores the unequal ways this controversial project is altering livelihoods, places and the environment. From road building projects in Nairobi to grassroots environmental activism in Thailand, researchers from the Global North and South analyse the real-world impacts of this unprecedented project, bringing together critical geography and political ecology approaches.