Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

China in the eyes of Africa - a textual analysis of the Nigerian and South African blogosphere regarding China's activity on the African continent

Axelsson, Matilda LU (2009) STVM01 20092
Department of Political Science
Abstract
An analytical reading of the Nigerian and South African online debate regarding China’s engagement in Africa is here presented, with the purpose to contribute with knowledge from an African perspective. This thesis is a qualitative textual analysis of ideas where I have classified arguments from blogs and articles into different categories, compiled by Chris Alden, to view China in Africa as a devel-oping partner (positive approach), a competitor (skeptical approach) or a colonizer (negative approach). I have used these categories as an analytic framework with theories of structuralism and South-South cooperation, Internationalism/liberal in-terdependence logic and imperialistic thoughts and characterized the bloggers ar-gumentation. I... (More)
An analytical reading of the Nigerian and South African online debate regarding China’s engagement in Africa is here presented, with the purpose to contribute with knowledge from an African perspective. This thesis is a qualitative textual analysis of ideas where I have classified arguments from blogs and articles into different categories, compiled by Chris Alden, to view China in Africa as a devel-oping partner (positive approach), a competitor (skeptical approach) or a colonizer (negative approach). I have used these categories as an analytic framework with theories of structuralism and South-South cooperation, Internationalism/liberal in-terdependence logic and imperialistic thoughts and characterized the bloggers ar-gumentation. I found that the China in Africa discourse has been given rather slender attention in the Nigerian and South African online debate during 2009. However, when the topic is discussed the debate is variegated, but skeptical ar-guments are dominating for both countries. Nigerians are focusing on the prob-lems with cheap Chinese products and labour migration, while South Africans are more concerned with moral values. Nigerians are however much more critical to the Western way of judging the Chinese engagement and still see possible oppor-tunities in the cooperation if the own government takes its responsibility. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Axelsson, Matilda LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVM01 20092
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
blogosphere, "China in Africa", South Africa, Nigeria, "textual analysis of ideas"
language
English
additional info
I want to express my gratitude to my tutors: Johan Lagerkvist, The Swedish Institute of International Affairs, for inspiring me to the topic of the thesis, and Rikard Bengtsson, Lund University, for helping comments whenever needed.
I also want to thank the Swedish Institute of International Affairs for honoring me with the Northeast Asian Scholarship and the opportunity to have a workplace at the institute.
id
1526134
date added to LUP
2010-02-01 11:46:57
date last changed
2010-02-01 11:46:57
@misc{1526134,
  abstract     = {{An analytical reading of the Nigerian and South African online debate regarding China’s engagement in Africa is here presented, with the purpose to contribute with knowledge from an African perspective. This thesis is a qualitative textual analysis of ideas where I have classified arguments from blogs and articles into different categories, compiled by Chris Alden, to view China in Africa as a devel-oping partner (positive approach), a competitor (skeptical approach) or a colonizer (negative approach). I have used these categories as an analytic framework with theories of structuralism and South-South cooperation, Internationalism/liberal in-terdependence logic and imperialistic thoughts and characterized the bloggers ar-gumentation. I found that the China in Africa discourse has been given rather slender attention in the Nigerian and South African online debate during 2009. However, when the topic is discussed the debate is variegated, but skeptical ar-guments are dominating for both countries. Nigerians are focusing on the prob-lems with cheap Chinese products and labour migration, while South Africans are more concerned with moral values. Nigerians are however much more critical to the Western way of judging the Chinese engagement and still see possible oppor-tunities in the cooperation if the own government takes its responsibility.}},
  author       = {{Axelsson, Matilda}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{China in the eyes of Africa - a textual analysis of the Nigerian and South African blogosphere regarding China's activity on the African continent}},
  year         = {{2009}},
}