Heike Pagel, Karen Ranke, Fabian Hempel, and Jonas Köhler:
The Use of the Concept „Global South“
in Social Science & Humanities
Presented at the symposium “Globaler Süden / Global South: Kritische Perspektiven”, Institut für
Asien- & Afrikawissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, July 11, 2014.
Research Question Qualitative Perspective
When analyzing a concept as enigmatic as the term In regard to the ten most-cited publications in the Scopus database that contain the term “Global
“Global South”, working with clear definitions becomes a South” (Figure 3), we were interested firstly in which thematic context the term is used by
hopeless endeavor. Since the end of the Cold War scholars, secondly which regions/countries the authors associate with the “Global South” and/or
rhetoric in the 1990s resulting from the fall of the Iron “Global North”, and thirdly which conceptual associations were linked to these.
Curtain, the division of the World into First, Second and
Regions associated with the term “Global South”:
Third World has become obsolete. Furthermore, the
Asia (7), Africa (7), Latin-America (6), Middle-East (1)
ubiquitous terms development and developing countries
have equally lost some of their theoretical legitimacy, as Regions associated with the term “Global North”:
the centre of global economic growth has been shifting Europe (6), North America (5), Japan (2), “The West” (1), OECD-countries (1), EU (1)
to places outside the so called West (Europe, North
Topics and associations related to the term “Global South”:
America). These evolutions offer the discursive opening
Various topics were treated in the texts. Two topics appeared twice: Fair Trade (cf. Goodman,
for various new postcolonial and development debates.
Raynolds et al.) and Water Use (cf. Bakker). Fair Trade was presented as a possible empowerment
One of these is the division into "Global North" and
for the hitherto disadvantaged farmers in the “Global South” (cf. Goodman, Raynolds et al.), but
"Global South“ (Levander and Mignolo 2011). Social
the authors still referred to the old “Third World” dichotomy of “producers” in the “Global South”
science and the Humanities, although predominant in
and consumers in the “Global North”.
coining the term "Global South", are not the only
Other topics were the consequences of privatization and neoliberalism in the Global South (cf.
families of disciplines that increasingly use the term,
Bakker, Wilson, Murray Li). In this context we observed a dichotomy drawn between the dominance
other sciences such as natural science or medicine
Source: Commons.Wikimedia.org of private (“Global South”) and public (“Global North”) actors. The “Global North” was often
started to work with the North/South dichotomy.
associated with a strong state and public sector, whereas the “Global South” was presented as a
space where capitalism – supported by Western actors - and the absence of state regulation
negatively affected the living conditions of the inhabitants of the “Global South” (e.g. child work in
Quantitative Perspective Africa, cf. Robson, misled rural development, cf. Murray Li, water supply system, cf. Bakker).
Another spotted dichotomy was urban (“Global North”) vs. rural (“Global South”). The “Global
We give a quantitative approximation of the use of the concept “Global South” in modern SSH. South” is presented as still being rural and backwards for the most part (cf. Goodman, Saxeninan,
Our data derives from the commercial Scopus abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed Bakker, Murray Li, Raynolds et al). The “Global North” was presented as having accomplished its
literature which therefore covers only the international more visible scientific output. The urbanization process in an orderly manner and as a necessary accompaniment to 19th century
coverage of Scopus is vast and nevertheless limited; in regard to SSH for various reasons, e.g. urbanization (cf. Roy), whereas the “Global South’s” on-going urbanization process was presented
due to different publication cultures within SSH (Sivertsen 2014). But it covers over 55 million as chaotic and problematic (cf. Wilson). “Global South” urbanization analysis requires new theoretic
records in all fields of research, including more than 20.000 peer-reviewed journals. Therefore, approaches (cf. Roy) since the reasons for and the outcomes of urbanization in the “Global South”
it is reasonable to assume that it can provide insight on the quantity of scientific publications. differ significantly from those in the “Global North” (cf. Saxenian, Wilson, Roy, Murray Li).
Clearly, this constitutes a bias towards the global scientific mainstream and center, but exactly Figure 3. Most-Cited Publications containing the term „Global South“.
that enables us to make restricted assumptions in regard to our question.
Average
Total no. of
citations Affiliation Topic(s)
Figure 1. Publications containing the term „Global South“ between 2004 and 2013 (N=1041). citations
per year
248 Goodman, Michael K. 2004. “Reading fair trade: political ecological imaginary and the moral economy of fair trade foods.”
Political Geography 23 (7): 891-915.economy of fair trade foods.” Political Geography 23 (7): 891-915.
217 University of California, Santa
Cruz, USA;
137 13.7 Fair Trade
179 Kings College London, United
Kingdom
Saxenian, Anna Lee. 2005. “From brain drain to brain circulation: transnational communities and regional upgrading in India
and China.” Studies in Comparative International Development 40 (2): 35-61.
111 University of California, Berkeley, Migration and Circulation of high- skilled workers
125 13.9
86 USA
71 Bakker, Karen. 2007. “The ‘Commons’ Versus the ‘Commodity’: Alter-globalization, Anti-privatization and the Human Right to
Water in the Global South.” Antipode 39 (2): 430-455.
49 Water management,
38
23 University of British Columbia, Anti-privatization campaigns,
19 111 15.9
Canada Human right to water
Wilson, Ara. 2004. The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City. Berkeley, Los
2004 2005 2008 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Angeles: University of California Press.
Effects of global capitalist economy on identity, relationships, and local
93 9.3 Ohio State University, USA
economies of Bangkok
Raynolds, Laura, Douglas Murray, and Peter L. Taylor. 2004. ”Fair trade coffee: Building producer capacity via global
Based on the search term “Global South” and with restriction to the search fields Title, networks. ” Journal of International Development 16 (8): 1109-1121.
Abstracts and Keywords as well as the subject areas Social Sciences & Humanities, the inquiry 68 6.8 Colorado State University, USA Fair Trade coffee networks
resulted in 1204 documents published between 1996 and 2014. There was a steady increase Murray Li, Tania. 2011. “Centering labor in the land grab debate. ”The Journal of Peasant Studies 38 (2): 281–298.
in the number of publications from 2004 to 2013 (Figure 1). On the one hand this can be a Illegal land acquisition in the Global South,
symptom of a coverage gap of the database, on the other hand this might indicate a Labour conditions in the Global South,
67 22.3 University of Toronto, Canada Misled transition from small to large scale farming in the Global South,
progressing implementation of the term “Global South” in the current conceptual vocabulary of Urbanization problems in the Global South,
SSH scholars. Most documents were published by researchers associated with institutions in Poverty in the Global South
the United States (364), followed by the United Kingdom (284), Canada (133), South Africa Robson, Elsbeth. 2004. ”Hidden Child Workers: Young Carers in Zimbabwe.” Antipode 36 (2): 227-248.
(92), Australia (58), and Germany (45) (Figure 2). Furthermore, this result is biased towards 64 6.4 Keele University, United Kingdom Child work, HIV/AIDS, Health Care and Welfare System
English speaking countries, because the majority of the publications covered by Scopus is Roy, Ananya. 2009. ”The 21st-Century Metropolis: New Geographies of Theory.” Regional Studies 43 (6): 819-830.
written in English. Yet, English is still the lingua franca of contemporary science and the 62 12.4
University of California, Berkeley, New geographies, Urban futures, Urban theory, Urbanization, Urbanism,
majority of scientific papers are written in English (Madeleine 2007). USA Third World cities
Marther, Alexander S. 2007. ”Recent Asian forest transitions in relation to forest transition theory.” International Forestry
Figure 2. Document Output per Country between 1996 and 2014 (N=1292). Review 9 (1): 491-502.
University of Aberdeen, United Forest transition, Deforestation and reforestation in Asia, Global
58 8.3
Kingdom environmental trends
Bakker, Karen. 2003. ”Archipelagos and networks: urbanization and water privatization in the South. ” The Geographical
Journal 169 (4): 328-241.
University of British Columbia,
56 5.1 Strategies of water supply in urban global south, Privatization
Canada
A Journal Perspective
The journal “The Global South” was launched in 2007 and has since been issued twice a year.
It “serves as a forum focusing on the issues of the South, while also encouraging participation
from others more difficult to place geographically” (Dirlik 2007, 12; emphasis added). A
random sample analysis of the first issue was carried out with regard to the connotations as
well as possible solutions to the problematic understanding and usage of the term.
Associations of the term “Global South”:
Additionally, we briefly analyzed the citations of the document set (Figure 3). Citations can be Firstly, as a concept: “South” here has a geographical connotation as it is “largely equivalent,
used as an indicator for the relative importance of the respective publication. Or simply put in but not identical with ‘Third World’”. However, it is not “limited to geographical regions outside
regard to current practices, the impact of an article is usually assessed by the number of its of North America and (Western) Europe” (Lopez 2007b, 4) as one might expect. On the
citations. Excluding self-citations, 645 of the 1204 documents were at least cited once. The ten contrary, “the South is everywhere, but always somewhere” (Sparke 2007).
most-cited papers of the set were cited 841 in total, whereby the average rate of citations per This leads to the second connotation: “South” as a condition in the sense that certain groups
year of this subset amounts to 11.4 (Figure 3). All authors of these ten papers are affiliated are deprived of their freedom or excluded from certain rights and opportunities by local and/or
with institutions based in the US, the UK or Canada. (political) systems. Moreover, the term subaltern appears several times, e.g. “oppositional
subaltern cultures ranging from Africa, Central and South America, much of Asia, U.S. South,
the Caribbean, Mediterranean Europe” (Lopez 2007b, 8), which actually shows that the
References geographic connotation also here is still present.
To conclude, the term is linked to globalisation with its dichotomy of territorialization/
Dirlik, Arif. 2007. “Global South: Predicament and Promise.” The Global South: 1 (1), 12-23. deterritorialization that produces inequalities. “South” becomes “those parts of the world that
La Madeleine, Bonnie Lee. 2007. “Lost in translation.” Nature 445: 454-455. have experienced the most political, social, and economic upheaval, and which have suffered
Levander, Caroline, and Walter Mignolo. 2011. “Introduction: The Global South and World Dis/Order.” The the brunt of the greatest challenges, facing the world under globalization” (Lopez 2007a, v).
Global South 5 (1): 1-11. Solutions to the understanding and usage of the term:
Lopez, Alfred J. 2007a. “Preface & Acknowledgments.” The Global South 1(1): v-vi. In this context, three promising attempts were made by the authors: Firstly, by acknowledging
Lopez, Alfred J. 2007b. “Introduction: The (Post) Global South.” The Global South 1 (2): 1-11. heterogeneity, i.e. the “South” as well as the “North” are both sites of ”internal conflict and
Monteith, Sharon. 2007. “Southern like US?” The Global South 1 (1): 66-74. contradictions” (Dirlik 2007, 15), or by locating it indeed everywhere (Sparke 2007).
Sivertsen, Gunnar. 2014. „Scholarly publication patterns in the social sciences and humanities and their Secondly, by avoiding methodological nationalism and rather comparing (sub-national)
coverage in Scopus and Web of Science.” In Proceedings of the science and technology indicators conference localities, which could for example also lie in the U.S. South (Monteith 2007).
2014 Leiden, edited by Ed Noyons, 598-604. Leiden: Universiteit Leiden. Thirdly, by giving the narrowest definition possible, e.g. “North” as equivalent to the capitalist
Sparke, Matthew. 2007. “Everywhere but Always Somewhere: Critical Geographies of the Global South.” The elite class and “South” as equivalent to marginalized groups of people (Sparke 2007).
Global South 1 (1): 117-126.
