Digital Economy Industries, the Logic of Globalisation, and the Engineered and Entangled Cultures of Production and Consumption Behind the China-Africa Nexus

Mutibwa, Daniel

Abstract

This chapter discusses China-Africa relations in the development of digital economy industries within the context of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Digital Silk Road (DSR) flagship. In doing so, the chapter explores related encounters, engagement, experiences, and interactions through the conceptual lens of the logic of globalisation and glocalisation. To provide as comprehensive a picture as possible, the chapter spotlights both macro-level and micro-level processes shaping those encounters, experiences, and interactions and how these, in turn, are transforming the cultural, media, and technological landscapes of the African continent. Making use of the study of documentary evidence comprising analysis of (1) official government materials — including press releases, reports, speeches, white papers, and institutional social media accounts, (2) supranational and national policy instruments and memos, (3) trade publications, (4) key scholarship, and (5) carefully selected journalistic accounts, the chapter sets out to show that there is more to Chinese-led ICT development in Africa than meets the eye. What in the imaginaries of some Chinese and African actors are ‘win-win cooperation’ and ‘inclusive development’ driving global and glocal encounters and interactions, reality suggests something far more complex. Evidence points to a melange that encompasses an assemblage of mutual benefit, ‘saviour-like’ acts, predatorial practices, and extractive tendencies that engender arrangements characterised by entanglement, convolution, and ambivalence.

Citation

Mutibwa, D. (2025). Digital Economy Industries, the Logic of Globalisation, and the Engineered and Entangled Cultures of Production and Consumption Behind the China-Africa Nexus. In H. Bao, & D. Mutibwa (Eds.), Entanglements and Ambivalences: Africa and China Encounters in Media and Culture. Taylor & Francis (Routledge)

• Publication Date: Feb 18, 2025
• Deposit Date: Nov 23, 2024
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: Entanglements and Ambivalences: Africa and China Encounters in Media and Culture
• Chapter Number: 6
• ISBN: 9781032948362
• Keywords: Digital Economy; ICTs; Digital Silk Road; Belt and Road Initiative; Globalisation; Glocalisation
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/42379374
• Publisher URL: https://www.routledge.com/Entanglements-and-Ambivalences-Africa-and-China-Encounters-in-Media-and-Culture/Bao-Mutibwa/p/book/9781032948362
• Contract Date: Sep 30, 2024