Jessica DiCarlo

📢🚨👉 AAG Unruly Natures 2026!!
Thursday 3/19, 7:30-10pm @ Standard Deviant Brewing

Weila Gong (@weilagong.bsky.social) Visiting Scholar at UC Davis and Nonresident Scholar with the 21st Century China Center (UC San Diego) | Author of Implementing a Low Future (OUP 2025)

@sethschindler.bsky.social and @jessicadicarlo.bsky.social sat down with weilagong.bsky.social to discuss her book: "Implementing a Low-Carbon Future: Climate Leadership in Chinese Cities," which asks: who actually makes low-carbon policy work on the ground?
newbooksnetwork.com/implementing...

New article out in JCCA on China as an environmental leader, which emerged from the Navigating Global China event thanks to @sppga.ubc.ca, @globalaffairs.canada.ca & @asiapacificfdn.bsky.social. A treat to think with this brilliant group!

New paper out in the Journal of Current Chinese Affairs
@jcca-gigahamburg.bsky.social
China Aspires to be an Environmental Leader: How Should the Rest of the World Engage?

It emerged from the Navigating Global China event @sppga.ubc.ca, Global Affairs Canada, & @asiapacificfdn.bsky.social

CAPE Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers

📢 CAPE Award Deadlines capeaag.wordpress.com

12/20: Outstanding Book
1/15: Nominations for Outstanding Article & Distinguished Career Award
2/1: Student Paper Award & FitzSimmons Early Career Award
2/15: Scholar-Activist Award & Field Study Award
@geographers.bsky.social

Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone - The People's Map of Global China The Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone (SDZ) is China’s only national-level overseas economic and trade cooperation zone in Laos. Established through a ‘land-for-funding’ arrangement, it was develop...

Check out Ellen Li's great profile of the Saysetta SEZ near Vientiane, Laos! It built on my visit (@profjulietlu.bsky.social) w Tyler Harlan & Nicholas Bosoni. Thanks to @jessicadicarlo.bsky.social and @globalchinamap.bsky.social for support! @ellenlhl.bsky.social
thepeoplesmap.net/project/vien...

The world from a bicycle: Cycling as kinesthetic methodology - Mia Bennett, Jessica DiCarlo, Sarah Elwood, 2025 We theorize the epistemological orientations and methodological possibilities of cycling as a sociotechnical, kinesthetic, and emplaced practice relevant across...

🚲 New paper published in Progress in Human Geography 🚲

'The world from a bicycle: Cycling as kinesthetic methodology' by Mia Bennett, Jessica DiCarlo, and Sarah Elwood

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... @jessicadicarlo.bsky.social

Flowing without Roots: The Identity Crisis of Foreigners’ Descendants in Mainland China | Made in China Journal In 2009, a woman named Lou Jing, born to a Chinese mother and an African American father, went on a TV show in China and declared herself a proud and patriotic Chinese person (Leung 2015). Her remarks...

Neither fully accepted nor entirely apart, the descendants of foreigners in China embody the tensions of identity in a globalised yet nationalistic age. Chengzhi Zhang traces their struggles for belonging and what this reveals about the boundaries of Chineseness.

Check out our latest podcast episode with @jacktaggart.bsky.social on "The end of aid? US, China, and the future of development" 🌍

newbooksnetwork.com/the-end-of-a...

China and the World: How Citizens View Their Country's Global Future Join us as we discuss the results of the first-ever survey of Chinese public opinion on foreign policy and what these findings mean for US-China relations and China's role in the world.

Tune into this *important* discussion on the first survey of Chinese public opinion on foreign policy and what these findings mean for US-China relations and China's role in the world.

September 3rd online and in person.

globalaffairs.org/events/china...

Trivium China | JD and Application Instructions | Cory Combs Trivium China is hiring! My team is looking for an analyst or junior analyst keen to dive into the rapidly evolving nexus of industrial policy, supply chains, and decarbonization. The role will be #C...

Trivium is hiring a Beijing-based junior analyst to focus on industrial policy, supply chains, and decarbonization. I could not recommend this brilliant team of people more highly. Apply!

www.linkedin.com/posts/cory-c...

Over the past 2 decades, China has become Laos’s top investor, main creditor, and 2nd-largest trade partner. In a new report, @profjulietlu.bsky.social and I unpack Chinese investment across four land-intensive sectors: agriculture & plantations, mining, infrastructure & SEZs. tinyurl.com/kw5vteem

Shaina Potts, Judicial Territory: Law, Capital, and the Expansion of American Empire - @dukepress.bsky.social, September 2024
www.dukeupress.edu/judicial-ter...
@newbooksnetwork.bsky.social discussion with Second Cold War Observatory. newbooksnetwork.com/judicial-ter...

A Green Cold War In our era of global economic interdependence, the face of geopolitics has changed

Wrote a new piece for @the-breakdown.bsky.social on how the Second Cold War is shaping the future climate and energy transition, including in developing countries
www.break-down.org/post/a-green...
@campolis.bsky.social @scwobservatory.bsky.social
a few quotes in the thread below: 1/6

Calls for Papers - Global China Pulse Calls for Papers Here you can find the call for papers for the journal issues we are currently working on. The initial pitches should be no longer than 300 words and explain the key argument of your p...

The next Global China Pulse CfP is out!
A Gendered Lens on Global China
@globalchinamap.bsky.social

globalchinapulse.net/calls-for-pa...

Pleased to see Infrastructural Times on the bookshelf, especially w/chapters by @jessicadicarlo.bsky.social @xazaaradjame.bsky.social, and Schindler & Kanai exploring temporalities connected to the BRI and Chinese-led global infrastructure development.

bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/infrastructu...

Six paths of Global China: A genealogy of a contested geographical imaginary - Jessica DiCarlo, Meredith DeBoom, 2025 ‘Global China’ has emerged as a shorthand for China's relationship to the global, but its axiomatic uses disguise considerable complexity. This article tro...

11/ Instead of asking what Global China is, we should ask:
👀Who is using the term?
🌏In what context?
⚖️For what purpose?
“Global China” isn’t self-evident, it’s a story told. And those stories have real-world stakes.

Read in @dialogueshg.bsky.social: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

10/ So, why does Global China and its tensions and contradictions matter?
Because “Global China” isn’t just descriptive—it’s political. It’s used to justify:
🪖Militarization
🤝Diplomacy
🎭Cultural exchange
And it shapes how we interpret China’s role in global change.

9/ Path VI: Alternative
A common position of Global China is as a model for the Global South, think:
🛤️Belt and Road
🌍South–South Cooperation and Solidarity
🏛️BRICS, Global Development Initiative
But it’s not one-sided: some see China as a partner, others as a new hegemon.

8/ Path V: Threat
This path centers “Global China” as threatening, for instance:
⚠️To democracy
📦To supply chains
🌐To the world order
This narrative fuels military spending, decoupling, espionage fears. China, in turn, invokes external threats to justify domestic control.

7/ Path IV: Status
Is China a superpower? A “great power”? Still a developing nation?
This path highlights the debate over China’s position in the global hierarchy—and how both Chinese and Western institutions narrate this positionality.

6/ Path III: Bridge
Focuses on people-to-people ties like:
🌏Diaspora connections
🎓International students
🎨Cultural exchanges
This path of Global China is plural, grassroots, and collaborative, often centering civil society rather than the state.

5/ Path II: Integration
China is seen as entering or reshaping global systems—like capitalism, trade, and finance.
🔁The West frames China as joining the rules-based order
🔄China frames itself as redefining global norms
So, is China a follower or a rule-maker?

4/ Path I: Other
China is portrayed as deviant, dangerous, or fundamentally different.
👤 “Debt trap diplomacy”
👤 “Yellow Peril”
👤 Authoritarian threat
China’s state media also leans on this frame—claiming Chinese exceptionalism in contrast to the West.

3/ We found that “Global China” works like a mirror—it reflects the priorities and politics of whoever uses it. We traced how different actors use the term and identified six dominant paths that shape its meaning.

2/ “Global China” is everywhere, from headlines about TikTok to debates on Chinese investment. It appears in millions of sources:
🔹Media coverage
🔹Think tank reports
🔹Academic studies
🔹Cultural references
to describe everything from infrastructure to education exchanges.

Six paths of Global China: A genealogy of a contested geographical imaginary - Jessica DiCarlo, Meredith DeBoom, 2025 ‘Global China’ has emerged as a shorthand for China's relationship to the global, but its axiomatic uses disguise considerable complexity. This article tro...

🧵1/What is Global China? @meredeboom.bsky.social & I argue it’s not one thing, but a plural, evolving imaginary. We trace 6 paths—Other, Integration, Bridge, Status, Threat, Alternative—showing how China’s global role is imagined, claimed & contested as meanings collide & open possibilities.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/u...

New Online 1st Article “Six paths of Global China: A genealogy of a contested geographical imaginary” by Jessica DiCarlo and Meredith DeBoom

doi.org/10.1177/2043...

'Global China' is suddenly everywhere, from think tank reports to political speeches to academic texts. But what political work does the term 'Global China' itself do? @jessicadicarlo.bsky.social and I identify six 'paths' of Global China: Other, Integration, Status, Bridge, Threat, & Alternative.