The specter of global China : politics, labor, and foreign investment in Africa / Ching Kwan Lee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lee, Ching Kwan, author.

Series:

cd

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Investments, Foreign--China.

Investments, Foreign.

Investments, Foreign--Zambia.

Capitalism--China.

Capitalism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (242 pages)

Place of Publication:

Chicago, [Illinois] ; London, [England] : The University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Summary:

China has recently emerged as one of Africa’s top business partners, aggressively pursuing its raw materials and establishing a mighty presence in the continent’s booming construction market. Among major foreign investors in Africa, China has stirred the most fear, hope, and controversy. For many, the specter of a Chinese neocolonial scramble is looming, while for others China is Africa’s best chance at economic renewal. Yet, global debates about China in Africa have been based more on rhetoric than on empirical evidence. Ching Kwan Lee’s The Specter of Global China is the first comparative ethnographic study that addresses the critical question: Is Chinese capital a different kind of capital? Offering the clearest look yet at China’s state-driven investment in Africa, this book is rooted in six years of extensive fieldwork in copper mines and construction sites in Zambia, Africa’s copper giant. Lee shadowed Chinese, Indian, and South African managers in underground mines, interviewed Zambian miners and construction workers, and worked with Zambian officials. Distinguishing carefully between Chinese state capital and global private capital in terms of their business objectives, labor practices, managerial ethos, and political engagement with the Zambian state and society, she concludes that Chinese state investment presents unique potential and perils for African development. The Specter of Global China will be a must-read for anyone interested in the future of China, Africa, and capitalism worldwide.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Map of Zambia

List of Abbreviations

Preface

1. Unnatural Capital: Chinese State Investment and Its Travails in Africa

2. Varieties of Accumulation: Profit Maximization and Beyond

3. Labor Bargains: Regimes of Exploitation and Exclusion

4. Managerial Ethos: Collective Asceticism versus Individual Careerism

5. Contesting Capital: Aspiration and Capacity from Below

6. Eventful Global China

Appendix: An Ethnographer’s Odyssey: The Mundane and the Sublime of Researching China in Zambia

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780226340975

022634097X

OCLC:

1198929883