A novel geographical research agenda on Silk Road urbanisation

Abstract The New Silk Road, also called China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is the largest single infrastructure project since the Marshall Plan and an exemplar of infrastructure‐led development of a scope and scale with no precedent in modern history. The project is estimated to cost up to US$8 trillion, involve 130 countries and impact more than 65% of the world's population. Through novel combinations of infrastructure and industrial projects with investments in the urban built environment, the BRI is transforming urban space across the global South and North altering the social and urban geographies of cities at a historically unparalleled scale. Nonetheless, its role in driving global urban transformation remains fundamentally underexplored. Relevant geographical research is scarce and comparative approaches focusing on cities are in their infancy, leading researchers to talk about an ‘anti‐urban’ bias in contemporary BRI scholarship that prevents an in‐depth understanding of the initiative's true scope. This paper introduces the novel concept of Silk Road urbanisation and puts forward the need for a new research agenda that has the potential to transform geographical and urban research on infrastructure‐led development, urban transformation and inequality.