Keuleers, Floor (2021). Choosing the better devil: Reception of EU and Chinese narratives on development by South African university students. In Alister Miskimmon, Ben O’Loughlin, & Jinghan Zeng (Eds.), One belt, one road, one story? Towards an EU-China strategic narrative (Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics series, Chap. 8, pp. 167-194). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International. (doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-53153-9_8) (Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53153-9_8) Print ISBN 978-3-030-53152-2 (£89.99, $119.99), Online ISBN 978-3-030-53153-9.
Abstract: In their relations with African countries, the European Union and China promote radically different narratives on the nature of development and cooperation. While the formation and projection stages of these narratives have received extensive attention, their reception by African audiences remains poorly understood. Survey data has shed some light on African attitudes towards different international actors, but cannot grasp the more complex ways in which competing narratives are interpreted, appropriated and adapted. This article presents novel empirical data gathered through the innovative Q methodology, to reveal how young, highly educated South Africans compose their own nuanced narratives about Africa’s international relations.
Floor Keuleers <fkeuleers@crisisgroup.org> is with the International Crisis Group, Brussels, Belgium.
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