PhD defence Chong Zhang - A Chinese Power Plant in Ghana: A Multi-Scalar Ethnography of Power,Trust,and Hope

Chong Zhang's PhD project examines how a Chinese-owned power plant in Tema, Ghana, becomes a dense social, political, and moral arena where ideas of development are negotiated in practice. Rather than treating Chinese infrastructure investment in Africa as either a simple “win-win” success story or a form of domination, the thesis offers a more nuanced ethnographic account of how Chinese and Ghanaian actors interact across multiple scales: state policy, corporate strategy, community relations, workplace hierarchy, and everyday life.

The defence ceremony can be watched via the Leiden University livestream.