The Third Tier of Globalization: African Traders in Guangzhou
In recent years, China’s major trading cities have witnessed rapid social, cultural and physical change which has accompanied the country’s boom in manufacturing and exports. A small but increasingly significant element of this growth has been the China–Africa trade in small-scale manufactured goods. The opening of China’s economy has created new spaces for migrant entrepreneurs capturing a share of international value chains, transforming social and business relations, and reconfiguring urban space. This paper draws on a pilot study by the authors of African migrants in Guangzhou in 2007, active in the exports to the African sub-continent. Findings challenge established models of global city growth, identifying the collective importance of individual entrepreneurs in promoting a trade which has significant impacts on African cities, while creating new interactions with identifiable, distinctive and unanticipated impacts on this dynamic host city.
City, Volume 12(2), 196-206, (2008)