China y el Internet africano: Perspectivas desde Kenia y Etiopía

Through the lens of China in Africa, this paper explores the transformations in the relationship between the Internet and the state. China’s economic success, impressive growth of Internet users and relative stability have quietly promoted an example of how the Internet can be deployed within the larger political and economic strategies of developing states, moving beyond the democratization paradigm promoted in the West. New evidence suggests that this model is becoming increasingly popular, but it is not clear why and how it is spreading. Through a case study comparison of an emerging democracy, Kenya, and a semi-authoritarian country, Ethiopia, where China has recently increased its involvement in the communications sector, this paper investigates whether and how the ideas of state stability, development and community that characterize the strategies pursued by the Chinese government are influencing and legitimizing the development of a less open model of the Internet. It analyses how new ideas, technologies and norms integrate with existing ones and which factors influence their adoption or rejection. It is based on fieldwork conducted in Ethiopia and in Kenya between 2011 and 2013, where data was collected through mapping Internet related projects involving Chinese companies and authorities, analysing Internet policies and regulations, and interviewing officials in Ministries of Communication, media lawyers, Internet activists, and Chinese employed in the media and telecommunication sector in Kenya and Ethiopia.Desde la óptica de China en África, este artículo explora las transformaciones en la relación entre Internet y el estado. El éxito económico de China, el impresionante crecimiento de usuarios de Internet y estabilidad relativa ha promovido un ejemplo tranquilo de cómo Internet puede ser desplegado dentro de las más amplias estrategias políticas y económicas de los estados en desarrollo, más allá del paradigma de la democratización promovida en Occidente. Existen nuevas evidencias que sugieren que este modelo está siendo cada vez más popular, pero no está claro por qué y cómo se está extendiendo. A través de un estudio de caso comparativo de una democracia emergente, Kenia, y un país semi-autoritario, Etiopía, donde China ha aumentado recientemente su participación en el sector de las comunicaciones, este trabajo investiga hasta qué punto y de qué manera las ideas de la estabilidad del Estado, el desarrollo y la comunidad que caracterizan las estrategias adoptadas por el gobierno chino están influyendo y legitimando el desarrollo de un modelo menos abierto de Internet. Se analiza cómo las nuevas ideas, tecnologías y normas se integran con las ya existentes y qué factores influyen en su adopción o rechazo. El artículo se basa en el trabajo de campo llevado a cabo en Etiopía y en Kenia entre 2011 y 2013, donde se recogieron datos a través del análisis de proyectos relacionados con Internet en los que participan empresas y autoridades chinas, así como el estudio de las políticas y reglamentos de internet, y complementando con entrevistas a funcionarios de los Ministerios de Comunicación, especialistas en derecho de las comunicaciones, activistas de Internet, así como profesionales chinos del sector de las telecomunicaciones en Kenia y Etiopía

Public Opinion Research in a Conflict Zone: Grassroots Diplomacy in Darfur

This paper outlines a research framework to assess attitudes towards peace and conflict and support a form of “grassroots diplomacy” in conflict and post-conflict societies. Based on research in Darfur conducted in 2007-2008, a combination of methods that can be effective tools for addressing this challenge is detailed. The intent is to provide a framework that others interested in research in conflict areas can implement in different scenarios

Media Development with Chinese Characteristics

Chinese authorities often frame their activities in the development sector as distinctive from those pursued by Western donors by stressing that they are not seeking to export a specific model but simply to help countries reach their potential. This demand-driven approach has applied to old and new development areas, from education to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and has appeared fairly consistent across countries. This pledge, however, has not meant that Chinese aid is neutral or without significant political implications. China’s concessionary loans and support to development projects have tended to shift balances of power by favouring certain actors over others and have challenged existing development paradigms,revitalizing ideas of the developmental state. Building on fieldwork conducted in Ghana, Ethiopia,and Kenya this article explains to which extent China’s entrance in the media and telecommunication sector actually challenges the dominant, Western-driven approaches to media development, promoting a state centred vision of the information society

Development and destabilization. The selective adoption of ICTs in Ethiopia

This thesis questions and examines the role Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are playing in the political transitions of developing countries. While there is much discussion about the contribution of ICTs in promoting economic growth and supporting the democratisation process, there is less understanding of the ways in which ICTs are often re-interpreted, re-defined and reshaped to fit political and cultural contexts that are substantially different from those of their origin. Focusing on the case of Ethiopia, I analyze one of these processes of selective adoption, examining which components of ICTs have been endorsed and proactively promoted by the government of Ethiopia, which have been constrained or inhibited, and for what reasons. I build on a conceptual framework that combines critical insights from different forms of constructivism, especially as they have emerged in international relations and in the history of technology tradition. I offer a new approach that reframes ICTs from consensual objects with an agreed set of characteristics and possible effects to nodes surrounded by conflict, which can be appropriated or resisted by different actors to pursue potentially competing goals. This thesis draws on extensive fieldwork and employs a variety of methods that have allowed me to analyse both the discursive and the material elements intervening in the adoption and adaptation of ICTs in Ethiopia. The research progressed through an iterative comparison between conceptualizations emerging from interviews with individuals who shaped the path of ICTs in the country, as well as from other textual material, and observations of how the technical artefacts were actually implemented. This process made it possible to understand how the complex nation building project pursued by the government of Ethiopia motivated the development of two large scale ICT projects, known as Woredanet and Schoolnet, and led to the marginalization of alternative uses of ICTs promoted by other components of society, such as the private sector, Ethiopians in the diaspora and international organizations

China in Africa: A New Approach to Media Development?

This report is based on the outcomes of the workshop organized by the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) at the University of Oxford and the Stanhope Centre for communications Policy Research. The workshop reflected on China’s growing influence in Africa’s communications sector and on the implications this has on the prevailing local and Western approaches to media assistance and media development in Africa and beyond. It brought together researchers from Africa, China, and Europe to build a common research agenda and to develop an innovative and multi-actor approach to studying the transformations experienced by media systems in an increasingly multi-polar world

BLURRING BOUNDARIES, RESHAPING TECHNOLOGIES, MERGING KNOW-HOWS: A REFLEXIVE APPROACH TO ICT4D IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Since the Millennium Development Goals first met digital media, initiatives harnessing ICTs to improve health services, empower civil society, enhance emergency response and increase the competitiveness of small producers have proliferated across the Global South. In particular, the widespread adoption of mobile telephony has been increasingly shaping aid policies and coalescing strategies of actors driven by diverse aims: Ngo’s cultivating innovation for social change, businesspeople reaping profits at the bottom of the pyramid, activists seeking greater political accountability and governments (sometime) willing to concede it, but in their own terms. The emphasis on the transformational potential of the ICTs often conceals tensions arising from the encounter of different ways of knowing and of acting and from the emergence of new socio-technical arrangements in which deep-seated dichotomies are challenged: profit/no-profit; surveillance/sousveillance; civil society/uncivil society; formal economy/informal economy. Processes of appropriation and reshaping of technological innovations problematize linear views of technology transfer based on the North-South axis and call upon academics to elaborate new frameworks and methodologies to grasp the ongoing transformations

Researching Attitudes Towards Peace and Conflict and Darfur: An Analysis of a Research Initiative From February 2007 – October 2008

The Researching Attitudes towards Peace and Conflict in Darfur project seeks to inform the ongoing peace process in Darfur by providing the various institutions involved in the mediation efforts with a deeper understanding of Darfurians’ perspectives on the causes of the conflict, its impact on their lives, and the role of the international community in its resolution. The project was initiated at the request of Albany Associates (www.albanyassociates.com), which was contracted by the UK’s Department for International Development in 2006 to engage in communication about the Darfur peace process among the population of Darfur and other key stakeholders on behalf of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and later United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). The project is a partnership of the Center for Global Communication Studies (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania) and the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research, and is funded by contributions from the Dutch Ministry for Development Cooperation and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The guiding premise of the project is that complex, seemingly intractable conflicts cannot be effectively resolved without taking into account the positions and opinions of those most directly affected