{"id":96957,"date":"2024-07-27T12:18:31","date_gmt":"2024-07-27T10:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/top-rights-defender-vava-graduates-with-phd"},"modified":"2024-07-27T14:24:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-27T12:24:32","slug":"top-rights-defender-vava-graduates-with-phd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/top-rights-defender-vava-graduates-with-phd","title":{"rendered":"Top rights defender Vava graduates with PhD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>RESPECTED human rights defender Blessing Vava has graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Studies.<\/p>\n<p>His thesis was titled All-Weather Friend? Chinese ICTs in Zimbabwe as General Purpose Technologies (GPTs).<\/p>\n<p>Vava, who is the current regional director for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, was conferred with the doctorate degree on Tuesday at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>His research investigated how Chinese ICTs in Zimbabwe could induce a paradigm shift, saying for this to happen, such technologies should first be seen as General Platform Technologies (GPTs).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGPTs are a class of technologies that have profound effects on the social and economic aspects of societies. Vava\u2019s study is almost prophetic in its anticipation of the emergence of a putative multipolar digital and communications order that is ICT-driven,\u201d said a laudation read by his supervisor Nyasha Mboti.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe study advances a new analytical framework that Vava calls the geosociotechnopolitical approach. This approach reaches beyond geoeconomics, technopolitics, technogeopolitics and geotechnopolitics, to propose a novel understanding of the interface of technology, history, geopolitics, international development, domestic politics, socialisation, local factors of production and socioeconomic conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>GPTs are a class of technologies that induce profound effects on the social and economic life of societies at the national and global level.<\/p>\n<p>Vava\u2019s study focused on technological diffusion, pervasiveness and innovation as critical pathways for comprehending Zimbabwe\u2019s development.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cZimbabwe has been struggling for over four decades to break free from the Rhodesian dual economic model which relies on the two general \u2018platforms\u2019 of mining and agriculture. This dual economic paradigm, being so entrenched, traps the country in a rinse and repeat pattern that is deficient of innovation and competitiveness,\u201d Vava wrote in his abstract.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI argue that Zimbabwe\u2019s economic future hinges on how far the Rhodesian model is decentred, reconstituted and supplanted, a process which calls for a \u2018jumpstart\u2019 and \u2018catching up\u2019, however uneven. Chinese ICTs could be a gateway to this critical decentring and reconstitution. For that to happen, Chinese ICTs in Zimbabwe need to assume the role of general platforms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe study\u2019s focus allowed for a deeper exploration of the complex relationship between China and Zimbabwe and its significance in geosociotechnopolitics and geosociotechnologies. In the study, which assumed that digital capitalism is transnationalised, the emergence of a multipolar global digital and communications order, and the putative importance of ICT-driven shifts in shaping geopolitical, socio-economic, and developmental discourse, are highlighted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A holder of a Bachelor of Arts Hons in Journalism and Media Studies and a Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand, Vava is a well-known human rights defender who has been detained on 17 occasions, tortured and persecuted for his stance against rights abuses and violations in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe Follow Africa-Press<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. RESPECTED human rights defender Blessing Vava has graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Studies. His thesis was titled All-Weather Friend? Chinese ICTs in Zimbabwe as General Purpose Technologies (GPTs). Vava, who is the current regional director for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, was conferred with the doctorate degree on Tuesday [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":96956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[19],"class_list":{"0":"post-96957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Top rights defender Vava graduates with PhD - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"RESPECTED human rights defender Blessing Vava has graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Studies. 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