Beyond the spatial fix: towards a finance-sensitive reading of the Belt and Road in Serbia

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been theorised as a spatial fix to China’s overaccumulation problem, such, an implicitly productivist endeavour. This article opens up conceptual space consider how historically geographically mediated forms of financialisation have tempered the unfolding BRI in peripheral economies. Drawing on Serbian post-socialist transition context, characterised by underinvestment persistent dependency foreign, market-based capital inflows which (1) precipitated state transformations mobilise Chinese financing for projects, strengthening role industrial rejuvenation; (2) created institutional palimpsest conducive non-productive surplus value appropriation that demonstrates hybridity accumulation imperatives underlying BRI.