%0 Journal Article
%T The Social Act of Exchange in Power Relations: The study of the Phenomenon of Nichekeleko at the Weighbridges in Zambia.
%A Chidongo Phiri
%J -
%D 2017
%X This article examines the widely practiced phenomenon of Nichekeleko at the Weighbridges (WBs) in Zambia. The commonly held understanding of Nichekeleko by the Zambian people is that, it is corruption; ranging from bribery, theft, embezzlement, gratification to favouritism. Sociologically, the phenomenon was conceived as a social act of exchange within the context of power relations by the actors who engage in it. Foucault¡¯s notion of power relations and Bourdieu¡¯s concepts of ¡°practice¡± and ¡°fields¡¯¡¯ provided the theoretical framework for the study. Power was considered as a system, and a network of relations, encompassing the whole society than a relation between the oppressed and the oppressor. Methodologically, this study was based on mixed method research; the large part of it involving participant- observation, interviews and administering of questionnaires The argument in this paper is that failure to analyse corruption from a linguistic and philosophical perspective implied in ¡®Nichekeleko¡¯ reduces the practice to mere violation of the law or moral rules. A much closer look at corruption from a language vantage point provides us with essential dimensions of the practice, why, and how it has persisted in Zambia
%K Corruption
%K Nichekeleko
%K Power relations
%K Social act of Exchange
%K Practice.
%U https://www.ajol.info/index.php/asr/article/view/167163