Disenchanted Modernities

Mega-Infrastructure Projects (MIPs) represent a central element of globalized development. MIPs like the Chinese driven Belt and Road Initiative' (BRI) include large-scale agrarian, road, rail, port and energy networks. They are complex ventures involving international capital and multiple stakeholders. Disenchanted Modernities presents 16 case studies showing that the promise of a sustainable modern development by MIPs leave many local users disenchanted: They don't profit form the MIPs but lose access to their resources often held in common. The book describes the strategies of states and companies as well as local responses to MIPs in Asia, Africa, Americas and Europe.

Tobias Haller is Extraordinary Professor in Social Anthropology at the Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bern, Switzerland and lecturer at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

Samuel Weissman is a researcher at the Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bern, Switzerland.