Southern Discomfort: Interrogating the Category of the Global South

Abstract

Researchers in development studies have expressed discomfort at the hierarchy inherent in the use of 'North' and 'South', and cognate concepts like 'First' and 'Third World', or 'emerging economies'. Instead of setting aside the terminology, this article delves into the layered meaning-making around the notion of the South. Drawing on multi-and inter-disciplinary perspectives, it maps out the South as (1) territory constructed through history, geography and time, and characterized by (2) relations of domination and othering, which are starkly visible in racial divisions wrought on the world through slavery, colonialism and recent struggles around migration. The article then explores Southern 'talk back' through analysis initiated in Southern institutions which highlights (3) structures that continue to divide the world through a political economy of underdevelopment. Finally, it turns to (4) politics which challenges these structures of domination through direct action and solidarities. The conclusion revisits the 'stickiness' of 'the South'. It is argued that the South as a territorial, relational, structural and political construct is fundamentally about the distribution of power in the global system. While some uses of the concept enhance power asymmetries, others contribute to reducing them. This article concludes that a critical understanding of the contradictory meanings and uses of the concept within development studies is more important than discursive attempts to replace it.

Dissonant intimacies: Coloniality and the failures of South–South collaboration

“…On the contrary, it anticipated sameness and solidarity. In the current conjuncture of global neoliberalism and political polarity, there is, in fact, a sharp waning of Southern solidarity (Sud & Sanchez-Ancochea, 2022) and a resurgent nationalism, methodological and otherwise.…”

“…She uses the term as ‘a placeholder, even though I realize that there is really nothing called the global South and, indeed, there never was’ (in Chattopadhyay, 2018). See, however, Ahmad’s (2022) more recent insistence to think about the Global South as geography and not just epistemology alone (see also Sud & Sanchez-Ancochea, 2022).…”

Common Challenges for All? A Critical Engagement with the Emerging Vision for Post‐pandemic Development Studies

“…Lastly, in urging that development studies embrace a universal development framework, neither of the articles engages with the Southern origins of and justifications for the North-South framework they seek to overturn (see Sud and Sánchez-Ancochea, 2022). Rather than the origin story of 'international development' as Truman's inaugural address in 1949, in which he highlighted his programme for intervention in countries in the global South, Southern-based visions of development have their own origin stories, often associated with a similarly significant event.…”

Informarse es problemático: consideraciones a partir de las prácticas cotidianas de las mujeres en tiempos de precariedad

“…)pandémica que estructura sus vidas cotidianas (Lorey, 2016;ELA, 2020). Sus experiencias localizadas constituyen el punto de partida empírico a partir del cual analizo el vínculo de las mujeres con la información como problemática significativa a nivel global para quienes investigamos la comunicación a fin de promover los derechos de la ciudadanía (Menon, 2022;Sud y Sánchez-Ancochea, 2022).…”