This research theme aims to place the case studies of the BRINFAITH project into a broader historical and geopolitical context through macro-level mapping. The work being undertaken falls into three types of mapping: historical mapping, geo-mapping and social media mapping. The historical mapping project involves situating the BRI in a history of spatial imaginaries of empire, cosmology and religion in Asia. The geo-mapping project involves the construction of an online map generating database on the BRI, collecting and superimposing multiple datasets on the BRI, including datasets related to religion. The social media mapping project involves mapping conversations on the BRI in social media, tracing the evolution of sentiment in different locations, identifying key opinion leaders and their networks and influence, and tracing the role of religious factors in the shaping of the online discourse.
This data mining project investigates the changing and contested narratives of the BRI in social media, focusing on sentimental and networking characteristics in online communication platforms. In an interim outcome, this work has firstly framed a systematic approach to analyse the discourse on the BRI in social networking platforms; with further...
The BRI Mapbox illustrates the spatial configuration between infrastructures and religious factors in the BRI region. This work maps out and correlates routes, borders, railroads, pipelines, ports and free trade zones with demographic, economic and geo-political data in both contemporary and retrospective timeframes. These spatial features form a...
This subproject situates the contemporary mapping of the BRI within the history of the spacial imagination of Asia, using the notion of “empire” as a conceptual tool to interrogate how the connecting and separation of places through networks and infrastructures of trade and religion have been associated with different imaginations, juxtapositions...