About

Joel Wainwright is a Professor in the Department of Geography at The Ohio State University. His areas of expertise include the political economy of development, environmental and agrarian change, and social theory. Wainwright's research focuses on political economy, development, social theory, and environmental change, contributing to understanding the complex interactions between economic systems, social structures, and environmental processes. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Minnesota, obtained in 2003, with a minor in sustainable agriculture. His academic background also includes a Master's degree in Geography from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor's degree with Honors in Environmental Studies from Bucknell University. Wainwright has authored several publications, including books on geopolitics, climate, and development, and has taught courses related to development studies, environmental conservation, and human geography. His work integrates critical perspectives on colonial power, environmental issues, and social theory, making significant contributions to the fields of geography and political economy.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Law
• Social Science
• Finance
• Medicine
• Economics
• Public administration
• Epistemology
• Economy
• Political economy

Selected publications

• ‘The Drive of Capital Is Towards Planetary Management’: An Interview of Joel Wainwright by Jakub Majmurek

  World · 2026-04-15

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Here, Jakub Majmurek interviews Joel Wainwright about the geopolitics of climate change [...]

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Trade, trust, and geopolitics: soy exports to China from Uruguay and Argentina, 2000–2020

  Eurasian Geography and Economics · 2025-09-24 · 1 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The techno-feudalism hypothesis is also wrong on political grounds

  Area Development and Policy · 2025-10-13

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Between feminism and partisanship: the rise and decline of the women’s movement in Belize, 1975–1993

  Women s History Review · 2024-03-14 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  This paper examines the historical trajectory of the women's movement in Belize, focusing on a critical period (1975-1993).We draw upon original sources from archival research coupled with interviews with Belizean women to interpret the rise and decline of the women's movement.The movement in Belize emerged in the late 1970s and peaked during the 1980s.At the height of the movement, female-led NGOs organized women across Belize with the goal of empowering women to better their communities and living conditions.Yet the outcomes of the movement dissipated in the 1990s.We interpret the vicissitudes of the movement against the backdrop of divisions generated during the years surrounding political independence (achieved in 1981).As Belize's struggle for independence from British colonialism reached its denouement in 1979-1981, the concerns of Belizean women came into public consciousness shaped by the U.N. Decade for Women, Cold War politics, and the politics of decolonization.These sparked a women's movement in the 1980s, albeit in a fashion that could not be sustained into the 1990s, an era of NGOs, neoliberalism, and clientelism.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Where does Xinjiang fit within the Belt and Road Initiative? Indications from CCP Documents and China’s Steel industry

  Critical Asian Studies · 2024-06-28 · 5 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambitious, contentious, and world-spanning project. Using Chinese Communist Party (CCP) documents, this paper examines one of the stated purposes of the BRI: to address regional inequality between China's east and west, focusing upon Xinjiang. Through an analysis of regional economic data, the demographics of Xinjiang and Xinjiang governing bodies, and a case study of the Chinese steel industry, this paper shows that the BRI has so far failed to check increasing regional inequality in China and that job opportunities for local communities in Xinjiang are constrained by social and political factors.

  PublisherDOI

• Capitalism qua development in an era of planetary crisis

  Area Development and Policy · 2024-02-28 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Ecological crisis, massive inequality and war: our world is at a dangerous tipping point. Yet the present global crisis defies simple description and is difficult to explain. To clarify, it is argued that the character of the world crisis today is triple: ecological, economic and political. Underlying all three dimensions is the capitalist form of world society. The consolidation of this capitalist form was accompanied by the emergence of the concept of development within liberal philosophy. During the 20th century, development came to define geographical regions and legitimate capitalist political economy on a world scale. Capitalism came to be taken as development: I call this ‘capitalism qua development’. Because of the triple crisis, capitalism qua development is beginning to undergo a profound change. In an era of rapid global heating and ecological crisis, the tie between capital and development is straining and likely to give way. Capital is becoming more closely attached to the concept of adaptation. I argue that, in the most likely scenario (‘Climate Leviathan’), capitalism qua development will be recast as adaptation. Some signs of this shift are already apparent. Since this is only a likely prospect, three other possibilities – fates of the concept and practice of development – are proposed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Class processes and agrarian change in southern Belize, 1981–2020

  The Journal of Peasant Studies · 2023-02-08 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Environmental and agrarian changes are proceeding rapidly in southern Belize. Despite common recognition of these changes, little research has attempted to examine the class processes involved in social and environmental change. We trace how capitalism has transformed household reproduction over the past four decades, focusing on two key pathways by which these changes unfold: the commercialization of land use and the education of the labour force. Emerging class processes in the Maya communities undermine subsistence agriculture, generate inequality between households and genders, and magnify conflicts over land. These effects complicate struggles for communal land rights and class solidarity.

  PublisherDOI

• The Ethics of Geography–Military Relations: A Reply to Our Interlocutors

  Annals of the American Association of Geographers · 2022-05-02 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This is a reply to the commentaries on a critique of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Geography and Military Study Committee Report. We discuss the recent changes to the AAG Statement of Professional Ethics, focusing on two new passages concerning the involvement of the military in geographical research. We conclude with four actionable suggestions for the AAG.

  PublisherDOI

• The political economy of development in Belize under the People’s United Party

  Economic History of Developing Regions · 2022-06-10 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The former British colony of Belize faces serious economic problems today, reflecting a collapse in tourism following COVID-19. To account for this fragility, a return to economic history is needed. We focus on two critical periods. First, we examine why the Belizean state was unable to form a developmental state in the period of the anticolonial movement and self-government (the 1950s–1960s). Particular attention is given to George Price, leader of the anti-colonial People’s United Party (PUP) and ‘father of the country’. Second, turning to the post-colonial period, we examine one experimental chapter that lasted roughly a decade (1998–2007) when a coherent state-led economic strategy was pursued. During both periods the PUP-led state sought to reorganize development strategy along progressive lines, but failed to deliver. Because capital was almost completely foreign dominated, the fledgling Belizean developmental state could not discipline capital toward developmental alignment.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Contradiction and restructuring in the Belt and Road Initiative: reflections on China’s pause in the ‘Go world’

  Third World Quarterly · 2022 · 45 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Economics
  • Political economy

  The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a massive Chinese state/capitalist programme of transnational infrastructure construction initiated in 2013. Between 2013 and 2016, Chinese banks extended hundreds of billions of dollars –principally across Asia, but also Europe and Africa – for transportation and energy networks. Recently released statistics, however, suggest that project lending for the BRI collapsed from 2016 onwards. Our paper examines the reasons for this contraction through a case-study of the BRI in Africa. We contend that the lending contraction resulted from political and economic contradictions generated by this form of international interconnection, including the types of debt traps it helped create. This outcome is explained partly by the fact that the BRI is simultaneously a geopolitical and geoeconomic project. Whereas the balance of economic risks is arguably skewed against borrowers (in some cases leading to debt traps), from a geopolitical perspective, the Chinese state also seeks to expand influence in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. This creates counter-pressure on further expansion of such financing, which, complemented by domestic economic implications of loan failure, helps to explain the contraction.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Geoff Mann

  8 shared

• Shiguo Jiang

  Albany State University

  7 shared

• Joshua Lund

  Texas A&M University

  5 shared

• Seung‐Ook Lee

  5 shared

• Kristin L. Mercer

  The Ohio State University

  5 shared

• Oded Nir

  4 shared

• Peter C. Esselman

  4 shared

• Sook‐Jin Kim

  Samsung Medical Center

  3 shared