From the Third World to the Global South: Definitions of Moral Geographies of Inequality in Anti‐Colonial Intellectual Traditions

Abstract

For decades, the “Third World” was an expression used to refer to regions seen as lacking prosperity and progress, on the one hand, and as a rallying call for anti‐colonial struggles on the other. The concept evoked the uneven distribution of power and wealth following World War II, replaced the forms of oppression and disparities distinctive of the former colonial world, and fostered liberatory and autonomous projects. In recent discussions on intellectual decolonization, however, the Global South became a popular way of expressing purportedly similar understandings of what I name as “moral geographies of inequality.” This article reviews the genealogies, uses, lives and afterlives of these two concepts, discussing whether the “Third World” and the “Global South” refer to one and the same; the contexts in which these terms are most commonly used; why one term has been substituted for the other; and the possible repercussions of this shift.