The Global South as Concept

'Global South' names regions shaped by colonialism and global inequality, succeeding 'Third World' while raising its own questions of coherence and politics.

Definition

The study of 'Global South' as a concept for regions marginalized by colonialism and global capitalism, including its histories, uses, and critiques.

Scope

This topic examines the emergence, meanings, and contestation of 'Global South' as a category: its relation to earlier terms like 'Third World', its use to designate shared experiences of marginalization across continents, and arguments that theory and history can be written from the South.

Core questions

• What does 'Global South' name, and how does it differ from 'Third World'?
• Is it a geographic, economic, or political category?
• Can theory and history be produced from the South?

Key theories

Predicament and promise of the Global South

Arif Dirlik examined the genealogy of 'Global South', noting its promise as a frame of solidarity and the risk of incoherence as a successor to 'Third World'.

Theory from the South

Jean and John Comaroff argued that the Global South is not merely a site of data but a source of theory, anticipating dynamics that later spread to the global North.

History

The term gained traction from the 1990s as 'Third World' lost its Cold War footing. Prashad's history of the Third World project and the Comaroffs' call for theory from the South shaped debate over what, if anything, the Global South coherently names.

Debates

Coherence of the category

Scholars dispute whether 'Global South' is an analytically useful concept or a vague successor to 'Third World', as Dirlik weighs.

Key figures

• Arif Dirlik
• Jean Comaroff
• John Comaroff
• Vijay Prashad

Seminal works

• dirlik2007
• comaroff2012
• prashad2007

Frequently asked questions

Is the 'Global South' a geographic term?

Only loosely; it refers to regions shaped by colonialism and global inequality, mostly but not entirely in the southern hemisphere, and stresses shared experience over strict geography.