Research master thesis | African Studies (research) (MA)
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The thesis argues to give special attention to Chinese contractors with a provincial background (State-owned enterprise established at the provincial level) and their activities in African...Show moreThe thesis argues to give special attention to Chinese contractors with a provincial background (State-owned enterprise established at the provincial level) and their activities in African countries. Chinese actors who have an earlier entrance to the African market experience a ‘disembedding’ process as other forms of Chinese capital flow in. In face of intensified intra-China competition, provincial SOEs struggle to secure a position in the local market. This thesis explores how Chinese camps navigate changing and unfamiliar environment by cultivating connections with Senegalese actors and local communities. The analysis is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Touba, Matam, Thiès, Thienaba and Dakar. The tracking strategy is a combination of go-along, participant observation and small-talks. The conceptual tool of this thesis, based on the concepts of ‘scale’ (Xiang 2013), ‘navigation’(Vigh, 2006, 2009) and ‘connection’ (Kaag 2012), attempts to understand how flows at one scale can influence or disrupt another scale; and on the local level, how actors experience these disruptions and move through the social forces created in the momentum as socially immediate and socially imagined; and how, through connection and connecting, they find a temporary anchor. This thesis looks at how Chinese contractors navigate the ambiguity of trust and potentiality of obligation to make work and social life possible. It also looks at how Chinese navigate the Chinese guanxi practice and Senegalese system reciprocity to cultivate stable interpersonal relations with significant local actors, such as the Mbacke marabouts in Touba. Keywords: Senegal; China; social navigation; reciprocity; religion; infrastructure; provinceShow less
