Pilecka, Julia (2026) Shein, Platform Power, Global South Responses: A Comparative Analysis of Vietnam and Brazil. Bachelor thesis, Global Responsibility & Leadership (GRL).
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Abstract
This paper examines whether Shein functions as a form of Chinese soft power and if it reproduces structural inequalities in the Global South. It addresses a gap in scholarship on Chinese soft power, the Digital Silk Road, and digital platforms, in which Shein has been studied mainly as a business associated with unethical practices and environmental damage. Shein’s expansion across Global South markets matters because it connects everyday consumer purchases to broader questions of digital governance, labour conditions, dependency and development policy, making the platform relevant beyond fashion or business studies. Methodologically, the paper combines theory-driven deductive coding and interpretive case analysis with a semi-systematic literature review using narrative synthesis. Sources were gathered from four main academic databases, supplemented by grey literature, all of which were published between 2019 and 2026. Two comparative case studies of countries' responses to Shein's expansion are presented to contrast how countries in the Global South perceive Shein's influence on their economies. Due to data availability and contrasting responses, Brazil and Vietnam are used. Drawing on Castells’s concept of communication power and Wallerstein's world-systems theory, the findings show that Shein does not fit Nye's classical definition of soft power because its influence relies less on admiration for Chinese culture than on low prices and fast deliveries. At the same time, the Shein platform model concentrates high-value functions in a China-centred digital core while incorporating Global South markets primarily as sites of consumption and data extraction; a pattern consistent with structural dependency. This thesis, with its findings, argues that Shein is best understood as a commercially mediated geopolitical actor and that consumer-facing platforms should be analysed as part of global power relations rather than merely as retail businesses.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
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| Name supervisor: | Huiskes, M.C. |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Jul 2026 07:39 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Jul 2026 07:39 |
| URI: | https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/869 |
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