Global South

Global South

Global South is a term used to describe developing nations. These areas are often exploited by so-called social justice philanthropic organizations. The University of Virginia has a focus on "Global South Studies".

What/Where is the Global South?

Anne Garland Mahler of the University of Virginia described the Global South (excerpt):

"The Global South as a critical concept has three primary definitions. First, it has traditionally been used within intergovernmental development organizations –– primarily those that originated in the Non-Aligned Movement­ ­–– to refer to economically disadvantaged nation-states and as a post-cold war alternative to “Third World.” However, in recent years and within a variety of fields, the Global South is employed in a post-national sense to address spaces and peoples negatively impacted by contemporary capitalist globalization.

In this second definition, the Global South captures a deterritorialized geography of capitalism’s externalities and means to account for subjugated peoples within the borders of wealthier countries, such that there are economic Souths in the geographic North and Norths in the geographic South. While this usage relies on a longer tradition of analysis of the North’s geographic Souths­ ­–– wherein the South represents an internal periphery and subaltern relational position –– the epithet “global” is used to unhinge the South from a one-to-one relation to geography.

It is through this deterritorial conceptualization that a third meaning is attributed to the Global South in which it refers to the resistant imaginary of a transnational political subject that results from a shared experience of subjugation under contemporary global capitalism. This subject is forged when the world’s "Souths" recognize one another and view their conditions as shared (López 2007; Prashad 2012). The use of the Global South to refer to a political subjectivity draws from the rhetoric of the so-called Third World Project, or the non-aligned and radical internationalist discourses of the cold war. In this sense, the Global South may productively be considered a direct response to the category of postcoloniality in that it captures both a political collectivity and ideological formulation that arises from lateral solidarities among the world’s multiple Souths and moves beyond the analysis of the operation of power through colonial difference towards networked theories of power within contemporary global capitalism.

Critical scholarship that falls under the rubric of Global South Studies is invested in the analysis of the formation of a Global South subjectivity, the study of power and racialization within global capitalism in ways that transcend the nation-state as the unit of comparative analysis, and in tracing both contemporary South-South relations –– or relations among subaltern groups across national, linguistic, racial, and ethnic lines –– as well as the histories of those relations in prior forms of South-South exchange.

Global South: what does it mean and why use the term?

Marlea Clarke, Associate Professor, Dept. of Political Science, University of Victoria (Canada) described the Global South (excerpt):

This Blog is called ‘Global South Political Commentaries’, leading, perhaps, to the questions: where and what is the Global South, when did this term emerge, who uses the term and why? The answers are not quite as straightforward as some scholars might wish. According to Mahler (2017), the global South as a critical concept has at least three main definitions, and debate regarding its meaning, use, applicability, and analytical value continues in many academic circles. For some scholars and many non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the term global South generally refers to countries classified by the World Bank as low or middle income that are located in Africa, Asia, Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean. This definition uses the term in a descriptive manner and is simply the most recent in a long list of catch-all concepts used to identify, define, and cluster the ‘poorer parts of the world’. Therefore, like its predecessors (periphery; less-developed, developing, underdeveloped; third world) it lumps together very diverse economic, social and political experiences and positions into one overarching category.

While some scholars and activists hold onto this nation-state focused definition, others have critiqued it and embrace what Mahler and others refer to as a deterritorialised political economy conceptualisation of the term (2018). Drawing on the work of Antonio Gramsci, whose essay “The Southern Question” drew attention to uneven national processes of economic development and the role of capitalists in processes of ‘internal colonisation’, these scholars use the term global South “to address spaces and peoples negatively impacted by globalisation”, including subjugated peoples and poorer regions within wealthier countries (Mahler, 2018: 32). Increasingly, many scholars note that while geography and geopolitical relations remain important, growing gaps in wealth and power within countries must be acknowledged. As Mahler succinctly puts it, “there are Souths in the geographic North and Norths in the geographic South” (2018: 32). Linked to this second definition, other scholars and activists use the term to refer to a transnational political subjectivity and subaltern resistance under contemporary capitalist globalisation (Mahler, 2017 & 2018). Thus, this third definition of the global South looks beyond specificities of geographic location to identify the social agency of dominated groups.

[...]

For example, by the mid-1990s approximately 20% of the world’s population living in the highest-income countries had well over 80% of world income, trade, and investment. At the same time, new challenges brought by climate change and the spread of new diseases met existing struggles in areas such as health, food security and deforestation, and together these issues threaten to claw back gains made in many countries in earlier decades. And, as the last few years have proved – Ebola, Zika virus, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, drought, internally displaced persons, irregular migration – global South countries frequently bear the brunt of global challenges, even if global North countries and their citizens are key producers or facilitators of such problems.

Perhaps not surprising then, scholars and activists reinvigorated their calls for non-western analysis of global issues, poverty and inequality, and for a better understanding of the regional, national or locally based experiences and struggles associated with these challenges. Linked to this, the term ‘South’ began to be used by scholars who were interested in understanding and mapping geopolitical processes and relationships, and those interested in drawing attention to political struggles underway outside the western world and led by non-western people, communities or organisations.

The impetus for a term came, in large part, from the ‘South’ and was meant to centre the ‘South’ as opposed to previous terms which othered the ‘poorer parts of the world’. Influenced by the proliferation of “globalisation” discourse in the 1990s, the word global became attached to “South” to form the contemporary compound term.

The release of the United Nations Development Program initiative of 2003, “Forging a Global South,” played an important role in drawing attention to the concept. Also significant for the rise in popularity of the term has been the inter-activity among communities, political organisations and other groupings of the “South” to establish their own initiatives and policy responses. In short, the term has gained favour over the last decade in the development and academic community because, as Schafer et al (2017) succinctly put it, the term seems “able to incorporate the centrality of historical and contemporary patterns of wealth and power into a loosely geographically defined concept.”

Ilhan Omar's Use of 'Global South' and 'Internationalism'

As reported at RAIR Foundation USA:

"Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar joined a gathering of European communists to discuss methods to build big government in Europe. During a discussion held in June titled “Strengthening Public Sector in the Post-Pandemic Era” Omar bragged that “progressives” like herself have had to do “almost little to zero work” in getting their agenda items passed under the Biden Administration.

The conference featured members of Die Linke, an ally of Antifa that is the “direct descendant of the former East German Communist Party”. One of the speakers, Manon Aubry, expressed excitement over the massive amounts of money being printed by the Biden Administration. “I do believe that Biden’s significant move toward a progressive agenda – that has been forced by the left wing of the democrats – is a game changer for us,” she said during the discussion."

Ilhan Omar's comments transcribed:

“I wanted to thank you all for the invitation to meet today. I think we can all agree that with the rise of a very coordinated global right wing, it is critical for us to be gathering and forming a united internationalist front on the global left. Meetings like these are crucial to building these alliances. I’m honored to be here with you all today. I want to speak on some of the challenges I think we are collectively all facing to begin with the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic are going to be enormous. And they are going to hit particularly hard in the Global South.

I know some of my fellow panelists joined the letter that we sent with Senator Sanders to the World Bank and the IMF [International Monetary Fund] last year asking for a debt cancellation and Special Drawing Rights. And I think we’ve made a little progress on that but we all need to keep pushing and not let our brothers and sisters in Africa, Asia and Latin America suffer disproportionately the economic impacts of the pandemic.

And as my colleague was just alluding to, it goes without saying that the biggest crisis in all – on all of our hands is the pending Climate Catastrophe. Manon Aubry has been an incredible partner already in building a global coalition to push for a Global Green New Deal. She understands that coordination on climate needs to be fully global in order to have an impact. So I look forward to the work that we do together moving legislation on our own countries that take this threat seriously. And just as importantly – you know I look forward to all of the other efforts we are going to be collaborating on that are really creating a crisis both in our countries here in the United States and in Europe as well.

It has been incredible in so many ways for us progressives to have built a massive movement that's allowed for essentially a very moderate president and his administration to take on alot of the policies that we have been advocating for. And for us to do little to almost zero work in pushing on those main policies in regards to the economic – the economy, in regards to healthcare, and infrastructure. And now do the work of trying to get them to go a little farther in particular investments in regards to the amount of dollars that will be invested in these programs.

As we deliberate now in regards to legislation to invest on our infrastructure and job creation, it’s gonna be really important for us to continue to lead and push for sustainable investments in regards to these projects. We have done many – now I think four recovery packages – the biggest one being the American Rescue Plan.

Most of us understood how important it was for us to go big and bold and create investments that allowed for many to go into the pockets of people so that they are able to sustain themselves during this pandemic and the economic crisis that came from it. But, you know, we all understand that the recovery investments that have been made in regards to the pandemic are all a crisis investment. They’re not investments that are made in the long term.

Many of the programs that were funded in the community including one of my old legislations which helped to feed 22 million children are all just a year or two type of investment. Though what we are now looking at the investments going forward, is how to make these investments sustainable for ten years, for twenty years so we could actually see the impacts they will have on the lives of people.

I know that people have Bidenmania, but we here in the United States have Europemania. Many of us understand that there are programs that have been implemented in European countries that we use as a model for the things that we push for here in the United States. And so it is really important for us to both use each other as inspiration and opportunities to recognize the challenges that arise and collectively come up with ideas to address those challenges.

Left Forum

The following Left Forums referenced the Global South: Left Forum 2009, Left Forum 2010, Left Forum 2011, Left Forum 2015, Left Forum 2017.

U.S. Social Forum

Global South

The United States Social Forum is an "ongoing series of gatherings of social justice activists in the United States which grew out of the World Social Forum." They reference the Global South.

We call those who fight for justice to converge and act, and to reflect on the potential of our position and the power of our connections. Although we have built organizations that push forward an integrated, multi-issue, multiracial strategy, we have yet to build our movement on a scale relative to our sisters and brothers in the Global South.

The US Social Forum offers the opportunity to gather and unify these growing forces. We must seize this moment and advance our collective work to build grassroots leadership, develop collective vision and forumulate [sic] strategies that keep a strong movement growing.

Marina Karides, Walda Katz-Fishman, Rose Brewer, Jerome Scott, and Alice Lovelace

The book committee includes Marina Karides, Walda Katz-Fishman, Rose Brewer, Jerome Scott, and Alice Lovelace.

Open Letter to the Biden Administration on the Need for a Pandemic Pivot

An Open Letter to the Biden Administration on the Need for a Pandemic Pivot was signed by many radical leftists, including Walden Bello and Shalmali Guttal of the group Focus on the Global South.