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The paper is devoted to some methodological aspects of interdisciplinary analysis of Projects for Complementary Currencies (CC-Projects) have been sometime realized both in domestic and foreign economic practice. The analysis is focused mostly on the revealing both of the CC-projects' basic characteristics and conditions necessary for the effective CCs emission and their circulation. An emphasis is also paid to sampling of possible methodological approaches to an elaboration of successful projects and relevant payment systems. Among the main missions carried out by the projects (especially based on the local currencies, LCs) the authors have highlighted the revival of the local economies, mitigation or even complete absorption of external shocks (due to the countercyclical nature of the action of complementary currency acting as a buffer, countercyclical buffer) and, in addition, the supporting of social trust. It might be suggested that in some sense CCs are focused on turning the target territories for them into reliable islands of socio-economic stability. The paper contains its authors' effort to reveal why some observed projects with a multifunctional load relevant to them do not always manage to serve as an effective tool for strengthening market relations on the ground. This is one of the important components of the undertaken empirical analysis of different CCs which one time were implemented in various areas of many countries of the world.

AbstractIn the three decades since the Soviet Union, bazaars have enabled self‐employment for large segments of the population in the Caucasus and Central Asia. In this article, we analyse data collected through 1200 structured interviews with bazaar traders in 2016 and 2017 in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where we inquired about money, organization and support. These data allow us to draw empirically grounded conclusions about the daily operations of independent bazaar traders in the three countries. The data reveal two trends, which we describe in this article. First, the more globalized the individual businesses – evidenced by knowledge and usage of foreign currency and long‐distance trade networks – the more profitable the individual businesses. But simultaneously, in the three countries, bazaar trading has a low potential for growth. Although the cost of entry into the bazaar is low, the data show that the possibility of transformative growth – expansion in scale, innovation in efficiency or production, or increase in earning relative to investment – is also low, which reveals limitations on what bazaar trading can add to national economies despite its popularity as a vocation.

While celebrated as a new 'win-win' initiative, Belt and Road narratives sidestep the fact that current investment regimes originating in China must contour to existing political economies in host countries. Drawing on the examples of Pakistan and Tajikistan, both of which share land borders with China, and both of which have been eager recipients of recent Chinese investments, we forward two arguments: (1) In both countries the narrative of connectivity promoted through the Belt and Road Initiative builds on previous bilateral engagements with China. (2) Within Pakistan and Tajikistan, engagement with China has enabled the utilization of BRI as a political technology for domestic purposes, with the attempt to rule, re-define, order and exploit. Put differently, new investments from China serve to consolidate existing authority structures.

Pakistan occupies an elevated role in China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and hosts its 'flagship' project, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It has attracted the largest volume of investments under the BRI and opened itself comprehensively to its transformative potential. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of CPEC's impact on Pakistan's economy, politics, and society, covering its developmental benefits as well as resulting controversies. Interdisciplinary and international experts capture the complexity of CPEC, presenting new empirical data in the form of interviews, archival materials, and documentary evidence. Covering topics ranging from agriculture to the environment, gender to security, they focus on local outcomes challenging prevalent narratives about the BRI as a strategic, China-driven vehicle to transform other countries in its image. They argue that examples like CPEC should be understood as interactive processes between China and its international partners, which produce interdependent relations between them. Beyond the case of CPEC, these findings contribute to the burgeoning field of "Global China", through a comprehensive yet granular assessment of the first 10 years of the BRI's flagship project.