TY - JOUR
T1 - China's digital expansion in the Global South: Systematic literature review and future research agenda
AU - Heeks, Richard
AU - Ospina, Angelica
AU - Foster, Christopher
AU - Gao, Ping
AU - Han, Xia
AU - Jepson, Nicholas
AU - Schindler, Seth
AU - Zhou, Qingna
PY - 2024/2/23
Y1 - 2024/2/23
N2 - At the intersection of China’s growing global presence and growing digital power lies its digital expansion in the low- and middle-income countries of the Global South. Worth billions of US$ annually in trade and investment, and having a significant impact on these countries’ social and economic development, this phenomenon has been relatively ignored by researchers to date. However, it has nonetheless now been sufficiently studied to warrant a systematic literature review, the results of which are reported in this article. The article has two aims: to identify what is already known about China’s digital expansion in the Global South and, from this, to outline a future research agenda. After characterizing the features, research design, and perspectives within current literature, the article overviews China’s digital expansion. It outlines this expansion’s synergies, tensions, strategies, design and implementation approaches, and evidence about development impact on Global South countries. The article explores two domain-specific issues arising in the literature: whether China is exporting “digital authoritarianism,” and the implications of China’s growing digital presence for digital governance at both global and national levels. The article ends by laying out a six-part research agenda for future investigation of China’s digital expansion in the Global South: more Southern voices, updating the scope of research, moving beyond the “Team China” monolith, steering between Chinese exceptionalism and identicalism, evaluating development impact, and local agency in a “digital Cold War.”
AB - At the intersection of China’s growing global presence and growing digital power lies its digital expansion in the low- and middle-income countries of the Global South. Worth billions of US$ annually in trade and investment, and having a significant impact on these countries’ social and economic development, this phenomenon has been relatively ignored by researchers to date. However, it has nonetheless now been sufficiently studied to warrant a systematic literature review, the results of which are reported in this article. The article has two aims: to identify what is already known about China’s digital expansion in the Global South and, from this, to outline a future research agenda. After characterizing the features, research design, and perspectives within current literature, the article overviews China’s digital expansion. It outlines this expansion’s synergies, tensions, strategies, design and implementation approaches, and evidence about development impact on Global South countries. The article explores two domain-specific issues arising in the literature: whether China is exporting “digital authoritarianism,” and the implications of China’s growing digital presence for digital governance at both global and national levels. The article ends by laying out a six-part research agenda for future investigation of China’s digital expansion in the Global South: more Southern voices, updating the scope of research, moving beyond the “Team China” monolith, steering between Chinese exceptionalism and identicalism, evaluating development impact, and local agency in a “digital Cold War.”
KW - Digital China
KW - digital development
KW - Digital Silk Road
KW - Global South
KW - literature review
KW - research agenda
UR - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmSKagi5RDM
U2 - 10.1080/01972243.2024.2315875
DO - 10.1080/01972243.2024.2315875
M3 - Review article
SN - 0197-2243
VL - 40
SP - 69
EP - 95
JO - The Information Society
JF - The Information Society
IS - 2
ER -