Work

The Corridor as Commodity: Enclosure, Legibility, and Uneven Development in Southeast Asian Railway Projects

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Corridors are promoted as seamless solutions for economic development, integrating production and consumption networks. However, they often fall short, fail, and operate as tools of accumulation for some while unevenly and, at times, violently reshaping the lives of others. This paper examines how corridors are constructed through dialectical processes of enclosure and opening, involving the enclosure of land, livelihoods, and social relations alongside the opening of spaces for speculation and accumulation, which we argue constitute corridorisation. Central to this process is abstraction, which transforms corridors into commodities, obscuring inherent contradictions and violence. Drawing on Marx's concept of commodity fetishism, we analyse corridors in Indonesia and Laos to trace the processes and effects of corridorisation. By exposing the fetishisation of corridors, this paper unmasks the hidden social relations and uneven impacts underpinning their development, shedding light on who and what is excluded from these visions of progress.

Source: Antipode

DOI: 10.1111/anti.70014

Authors: Jessica DiCarlo, David Fernando Bachrach

Institutions: University of Utah, University of Colorado Boulder

Language: English

Topic: Political Economy and Marxism

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,520