Understanding the way various regions relate with each other socially, economically or in the political front requires that the researcher looks at all the variables represented in the relationship. Since the China-Africa relations is not a new phenomenon, there will be a need for adopting a perspective that will highlight the ontologies and epistemologies that made Africa warm up to China even after many years of cordial relationship with the west (Kiely 2016). The critical theory approach is better placed to elaborate on the China-Africa relations in this paper as it would offer an understanding of the current situation using the events of the past and provide future trends using similar examples in the other regions of the world (Green 2017). To set clearly defined ontological and epistemological boundaries, it is imperative that the critical perspective should be considered in light of the other closely related theories.
First, the Interpretivism approach aims at understanding social situations by giving meanings to why things happen the way they do. The process entails the researcher meeting with subjects that are affected by a particular issue and gathering information about the factors that resulted in the current situation (Bryman 2016). Therefore, the considerable part of the process entails giving a qualitative interpretation to data by linking the people’s practices, beliefs, and motivations to the economic, social or political contexts that they have at a given period (Ryan 2018). Therefore, interpretivism aims at generating information that will help in classifying, labeling and naming social situations especially for the benefit of outsiders who have no clue about the workings of a given community.
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Secondly, positivism entails offering solutions to societies by relying on logical reasoning. It follows that the approach pays colossal attention to methods that acknowledge reason and evidence more than beliefs, values, and motivations (Green, 2017). Therefore, qualitative and quantitative data, statistics, scientific research, and controlled experiments dominate positivism (Bryman 2016). The proponent of the theory believed that societies were advancing and current problems required a different approach. Therefore, there has been a considerable shift from theological-military, and metaphysical-judicial approaches to scientific-industrial solutions. Thus, society should not be viewed in terms of things that could not be quantified such as traditions, morality, religion, social beliefs, fears, and motivations.
Critical theory is among the ideas that extended from the Marxist tradition and differs from the previous two approaches in that it seeks answers for the future. The proponents of the critical theory pay closer attention to understanding the social phenomenon in their totality with the aim of crafting solutions to some of the persistent problems (Green 2017). Therefore, instead of understandings society as it is, the researchers will try to point to the beliefs or mannerisms that are locking the society’s potential of being the better version of itself (Bryman 2016). Therefore, the critical theory will help shape the understanding of the China-Africa relations as it will give clear indications of what motivates such a connection and what the future holds for the two regions.
The critical approach is focused on finding solutions to the problems at hand. In this manner, this perspective will help shape the whole paper as it will help set a background to the issue, elaborate on the current circumstances, speculate on the future and give recommendations based on distinct qualities between China and Africa as well as similar relationships around the world (Bryman, 2016). The fact that critical theory also combines the components of positivism and interpretivism meaningfully and realistically implies that the study’s ontology, epistemology, and methodology will be credible, logical and valuable for decision making.
Critical theory helps to put the China-Africa relationship into perspective, ontologically and epistemologically, by elaborating on the current circumstances and shedding light into the future. China understood African situations and identified ways of making its societies better than they were (Ergano and Rao 2019). The western countries had focused more on aid assistance to Africa which did not bear much fruit as the continent’s problems were recurrent. However, China brought on board something new and revolutionary. Therefore, Western countries such as the US and the UK had focused so much on short-term solutions to African problems so that they get the honors every time a calamity struck the continent by giving their aid.
The China-Africa relationship is focused on speeding up economic development. Therefore, China offers many Africa countries infrastructure they have been missing for years in exchange for resources that would expand its economy. China identified that infrastructure would create employment opportunities, open up the market for products and stimulate healthy competition in various industries (Kiely 2016). These benefits would be hard to achieve had the country adopted aid assistance like the western nations. China offers financial aid to Africa in the form of loans and only a small amount in the way of non-repayable funds. For instance, China's spending on Africa was $ 60 billion, $170 billion and $ 60 billion in 2015, 2017 and 2018 respectively (Ergano and Rao 2019). In 2017, non-payable aid was only $15 billion. Therefore, in as much as China is opening its sources of revenue, it is also helping Africa immensely to realize goals that would have taken quite longer.
Researching the China-Africa relationship based on the critical theory will entail consulting secondary sources on the topic. This method will open the way for finding out what various scholars have to say about the issue which will help identify different viewpoints to the subject (Green 2017). There is likely to be time constraints in analyzing the sources comprehensively as the China-Africa debate has roused a lot of interest in various platforms; thus a vast store of data exists. Fortunately, the highly definitive nature of the theory will make it easy to formulate the research problems and study objectives.
References
Bryman, A., 2016. Social research methods . Oxford: Oxford university press.
Ergano, D. and Rao, S., 2019. Sino–Africa Bilateral Economic Relation: Nature and Perspectives. Insight on Africa , 11 (1), pp.1-17.
Green, T.L., 2017. From positivism to critical theory: School-community relations toward community equity literacy. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education , 30 (4), pp.370-387.
Kiely, R., 2016. The “Rise of the South” and International Relations and Development Theory. In The Rise and Fall of Emerging Powers (pp. 9-42). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Ryan, G., 2018. Introduction to positivism, interpretivism and critical theory. Nurse researcher , 25 (4), pp.41-49.
