Please note that this is a hybrid event. Please register for in-person attendance or register to join this event online.

This event presents two chapters from a recent edited book ‘Africa’s Global Infrastructures South–South Transformations in Practice’. The books address the boom in South–South relations since the early 2000s and the investments that have followed, but fills a gap: few studies have addressed ground-level impact, socio-economic practices in Africa, nor their transnational governance practices more broadly.

This event will be chaired by Clement Sefa-Nyarko. Dr Barnaby Dye, Dr Elisa Gambino and Dr Soumya Mishra will be joining the event as speakers. Dr Barnaby Dye will present a chapter comparing Indian and Brazilian practises whilst Dr Elisa Gambino presents research on Sino-African workplaces and labour relations.

About the speakers

Dr Barnaby Dye

Dr Barnaby Dye is a political economist whose research lies at the intersection of infrastructure in Africa and the so-called Rising Southern Powers, especially India and Brazil. This involves analysing international policymaking, tracing decisions about finance and diplomacy in global cities like Washington DC and Delhi, to national economic planning and then to individual infrastructure projects and the impacts they have on economies, people and the environment. This interest grew from reading Geography at the University of Cambridge, completing a master’s at King’s College London and then a doctorate in politics at the University of Oxford. He studied the resurgence of dam building in Africa, examining its international roots, national-level decision making and local impacts.

Dr Elisa Gambino

Dr Elisa Gambino is a Hallsworth Research Fellow in Political Economy at the Global Development Institute of the University of Manchester and Adjunct Researcher at the Centre for Asian Studies of the University of Ghana. Her current research project, titled “African hubs, Chinese trade, and global circulation”, focuses on the networks of Chinese companies and entrepreneurs increasingly engaged in cross-border exchanges in West Africa. Broadly speaking, her research focuses on the intersection between China’s outward economic engagement and Africa’s development trajectories. Elisa studies the internationalisation of Chinese capital in the African infrastructure, trade, and mining sectors, placing particular emphasis on roles of transnational networks in fostering the spatial expansion of Chinese companies.

Dr Soumya Mishra

Dr Soumya Mishra is a Lecturer in India and Global Affairs. Her research explores rural-urban migration, structural transformation and industrial development in India, with a particular focus on China-associated manufacturing moving to India. More recently, she has been working on projects led by Dr Charlotte Goodburn and Dr Jan Knoerich exploring socio-economic outcomes of Special Economic Zones in India and sub-Saharan Africa.