The Non-Evolutionary and Non-Benign Character of Stylized Facts

Powell, Jacob R.

doi:10.1080/00213624.2021.1908088

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…My methodology and methods extend the field. It is often stuck in 'stylised facts' and 'conventional wisdom', to borrow, respectively, from Nicholas Kaldor and John Kenneth Galbraith (for discussion, see Obeng-Odoom, 2020;Powell, 2021). It seems a priori mainstream economics is complemented by a priori news in The Economist.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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China–Africa Relations in The Economist, 2019–2021

Obeng‐Odoom

2022

Journal of Asian and African Studies

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The ‘Scramble for Africa’ has historically been a concept used to describe the plunder of Africa by colonial powers, their subsequent economic capture of African resources, their political control and their racial domination of Africans. But, in recent times, many writers have pointed to Chinese ‘Scramble for Africa’. Of these depictions, The Economist’s has been both categorical and relentless. But is the set of relationships between China and African countries imperial? Does it amount to a Chinese ‘Scramble for Africa’? If so, what can be done; if not, why not? Neither content nor institutional analyses of 27 stories, sampled from 132 issues of The Economist from 2019 to 2021, show conclusive evidence that the relationship between China and Africa is imperial. Evidence of African indebtedness to China, Chinese opaque resource transactions in Africa, and the controlling effect of China’s Belt and Road Initiative typically emphasised by The Economist is serious. But it does not amount to economic plunder, political control, military destabilisation or racial domination. The Economist’s characterisation of China–Africa relations reflects wider processes of Westernisation. Its features include the use of mainstream economic analysis, (mis)representation of the Global South to maintain Western hegemony and inhibiting Southern struggle to break the Western chokehold on global development. As an elite newspaper, The Economist’s ‘frame analysis’ not only presents news, but also produces views that caricature Global South agendas, especially those that threaten Western liberalism and imperialism.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also questionable is the debt-to-GDP concerns raised by The Economist . Empirically, ‘nations with debt-to-GDP ratios in excess of 90 percent experience lower GDP’ are not necessarily doomed to failure (Powell, 2021: 352. See also Herndon et al, 2014).…”

Section: Problematicsmentioning

confidence: 99%