Understanding the Global South

Course Learning Outcomes

• Students are expected to develop a different understanding of cities in the Global South.
• This is achieved through lectures, discussions, and urban research projects.
• The aim is to challenge stereotypical views and generalizations of cities in the 'Third World'.

Lecture Outline

• The lecture series introduces conceptual underpinnings of the course.
• Key questions include:
  • What is the meaning of the term “Third World”?
  • How did this term evolve?
  • Does the “Third World” still exist today?
  • What is the “Global South”?

Defining the "Third World"

• It is associated with visions of impoverished countries that struggle to meet basic human needs.
• Underdeveloped countries often share characteristics:
  • Low income per capita
  • Widespread poverty
  • Lack of capital (public and private)
  • High population growth
  • Excessive unemployment
  • Reliance on agriculture
  • Small and unproductive investments
  • Low productivity
  • Outdated production and social organization methods

The Third World: Nation Characteristics

• Identifies countries with:
  • High infant mortality
  • Low economic development
  • High poverty levels
  • Low natural resource utilization
  • Heavy dependence on industrialized nations
• It refers to developing, technologically less advanced nations in Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America.
• They tend to have economies dependent on developed countries.
• Characterized as poor with unstable governments, high population growth, illiteracy, and disease.
• A key factor is the lack of a middle class, with wealth controlled by a small elite.
• Most have very large foreign debts.

Origins and Evolution of the Term "Third World"

• Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès initiated the idea in his 1789 article "Qu'est-ce que le Tiers-Etat?", translated as "What is the Third Estate?", during the French Revolution.
• Alfred Sauvy, in 1952, borrowed the idea of the Third Estate and coined the term Tiers Monde (“Third World”).
• Sauvy used the term to describe countries (mainly former colonies) not aligned with Western capitalism (First World) or Soviet socialism (Second World).
• During the Cold War, it was widely applied in a political sense rather than in a developmental context.

20th Century Shift

• In the 20th century, the term gained momentum as a socioeconomic status describing "underdeveloped" conditions.
• Broadly refers to underdeveloped countries, especially in Asia or Africa, not aligned with either Communist or Non-Communist nations.
• "Third World" describes a developing nation, originally used to describe a country's allegiance.
• A "Third World country" is one whose views are not aligned with NATO and capitalism or the Soviet Union and communism.
• Its use started during the Cold War.

Geopolitical Context

• The terms First, Second, and Third World are more geopolitical than socioeconomic or developmental.
• After WWII (1939-945), the world was divided into two geopolitical blocs with differing ideological views on governance.
• The era is referred to as the Cold War period, lasting from the late 1940s until the early 1990s.
• Characterized by ideological, military, technological, and economic tension between the East and West.

Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)

• Remaining independent countries (mainly in Africa, Latin America, and Asia) became the “Third World”.
• In September 1961, many countries from these regions (represented by 25 heads of state) formed the NAM in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
• NAM has grown to include more than 110 countries.
• Founding leaders of NAM:
  • Jawaharlal Nehru of India
  • Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana
  • Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt
  • Sukarno of Indonesia
  • Broz Tito of Yugoslavia

Is the "Third World" Still Relevant?

• Retains relevance due to shared history (colonization) and role in the global economy (continuous subordination).
• Some argue it no longer exists.
• Factors contributing to the shift:
  • Collapse of communism in 1989-90, especially in the former Soviet Union and China
  • Policies of social and political liberalization
  • Economic reform in Russia by Mikhail Gorbachev
  • Fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 (built in 1961)
  • Russia adopted democracy and free market economy
• China also adopted Western capitalist economic principles.
• China became a member of the WTO on Dec. 11, 2000.

The End of an Era

• These events marked the end of the Cold War and the associated concepts of First World and Second World.
• Technically, the terms First, Second, and Third World are outdated and no longer applicable.
• The Third World and its stereotypical image of poverty/underdevelopment persist in media and minds.
• Justifies referring to urban areas in developing countries as "Third World Cities."

Shifting Terminology

• "Developing countries" is preferred as it opens to the hope that impoverished countries will one day achieve success.
• These terms also come with negative implications.
• The classifications are insulting and outdated.
• World War I ended a long time ago, so the alignment terms are obsolete.
• To correct the label of the “Third World” or the negative view of cities in developing countries, many prefer using the term Global South.

Defining the "Global South"

• Technically, since the term “Third World" is no longer in vogue, most researchers prefer using "developed countries” and “developing countries”.
• Emerging terms include Global North and Global South countries.
• Resulting in a Two-Tier world instead of a Three-Tier one.
• It is an emerging term used by the World Bank.
• Refers to low- and middle-income countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
• These contrast with the high-income nations of the Global North.

Pedagogical Challenges of the Global South

• How to define cities of the Global South.
• How to explain the complexity of life in these places.
• How to bring alive the heterogeneity of cities with different historical trajectories, not just poverty.
• How to present these cities as places of challenges and great promise.
• Emphasize active agents shaping their future instead of passive victims waiting for rescue.

Images of Cities of the Global South

• Vary from dismal places of poverty and despair to exotic islands of hypermodernity.
• Share a heritage of recent colonial histories in the global peripheries.

Characteristics of the Global South

• The term "global south" lacks singular and self-contained territories and categories defined in terms of First/Third World, Global South/North cities.
• Recognizes the Third World within the First World.
• Recognizes the global South in North America and the European Union.
• Concepts referred to as multipliCities, representing multiple worlds within each city.

Transformation of the Global South

• Drakakis-Smith (2002) notes the GS has insignificant variations due to a common heritage of colonialism and poverty.
• The allegedly uniform condition of poverty has become the dominant image of the “Third World”.
• Commonalities among “Third World” states were fragmenting by the 1970s.

Factors Behind this

• The oil crisis in the 1970s.
• OPEC countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, and Venezuela) became rich overnight.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in some ‘Third World’ countries.
• Capital investments were made by North American and European multinationals.
• Beneficiaries included Mexico, Brazil, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Africa.
• Has contributed to polarization of countries in the Global South.

Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs)

• Includes the growth of cities in NICs
• Cities within OPEC or oil-rich countries are increasingly developed.
• The more deprived countries of the Global South are now classified as the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
• The new term LDCs was coined by the United Nations to describe the world's poorest countries.

Least Developed Countries (LDCs)

• As of 2021, 46 countries are designated as LDCs by the UN.
• The LDCs are distributed among these regions:
  • Africa (33)
  • Asia (9)
  • Caribbean (1)
  • Pacific (3)
• Polarization remains because these benefits from oil and TWCs don't mean LDCs don't have resources.
• FDI into LDCs has increased significantly since the early 1990s, it forms a tiny proportion, about 3.5%

Diversity of the Global South

• This diversity includes cities in countries of varying economic and political structures and conditions.
• Includes democratic-capitalist states, socialist states, newly industrialized countries, rich countries, and poor countries.
• Examples of economic alliances include Democratic-Capitalist states (e.g., India, Brazil, S. Africa) and the BRICS.
• Drakakis-Smith (2002: p.6-7) highlights the need to strongly underscore these differences.
• Cities in the Global South exhibit considerable diversity.
• The diversity can arise from the nature of built environments to factors such as ethnic composition, economy, or history.

Commonalities of the Global South

• The commonalities can be seen in their position in their territories economically.
• Increasingly similar to their global counterparts in their areas.
• However this also depends on the influence and integration of forces.

This Integration Includes

• The legacies of colonialism
• Rapid population growth
• Increasing interconnectedness (Globalization) of urban areas to the global economy
• The advance of industrialization