Geographies of Developing Areas - The Global South in a Changing World
By Glyn Williams, Paula Meth, Katie Willis
The chapters summarized are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Samenvatting Geographies of Developing Areas, ISBN: 9780415643894 Globalising Worlds (MAN-BCU2029)
Samenvatting Geographies of Developing Areas, ISBN: 9780415643894 Globalising worlds (MAN-BCU2029)
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Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU)
Human Geography
Globalising Worlds (MANBCU2029)
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Globalising Worlds – Chapters summary for the exam
Chapters you will be examined on from Williams et al are Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Chapter 1 (p. 1-19)
North-South division:
Global South: ‘the developing world’, parts of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia
- Marginal, residual and generalized category. Underrepresented in research. Contains
80% of world’s population.
- Global North’s introduction to the South: a set of problems; poverty, debt or
environmental degradation (shame).
According to the Brandt Line, North-South division according to rich and poor nations
Stereotype: Global South is a collection of places and people in need of external (i.e. Global
Northern) intervention.
- There is more to the South than a list of problems: instead, full of richness
Rethinking the study of ‘developing areas’ (4 arguments):
Each challenges the assumptions about North-South division
1. The power of representation
Representation of the Global South matter: the way places in the South are written and
talked about can have important effects. This impacts the decision-making over aid and
international policy
- Exercise of power: the repeated use of restricted forms of description forms. This will
create ‘fix’ ideas of a place in our minds and shape the way we respond to it. Our
‘mental map’.
2. Geographies of globalization
Life in the Global South is not separate from the North but intimately linked to it through a
range of global processes. South is a vital and active part of processes of globalization.
- Globalization is presented as an ambivalent (two sides) process
o Positive side: Cheaper and more varied products sourced from the whole
world, or a sense of ‘global community’
o Negative side: The global marketplace can mean job insecurity as industries
relocate to areas of cheaper production, or collapse in the face of greater
competition.
Critical view on globalization (‘common-sense interpretations’)
, - It is not a new process. The interconnectedness of people’s lives and places across
the world is much older. For example, mass international trade due to European
colonialism
- The world is not becoming uniform. Suggestion that globalization is reducing the
differences between places, is not necessarily true.
o Uneven equality (economically): Upsurge in the internationalization of the
world’s economy has been accompanied by ever-increasing inequality.
o The cultures and identities are not disappearing
- It is not an unstoppable process driven by abstract forces, such as technological
change or ‘the global market’. This idea devalues the agency of people who shape
global processes. Instead, the globalization process is made up of connections
between the smaller actions of individuals and groups.
3. Engaging with the Global South
Understanding the Global South requires a detailed engagement with its particular histories
and geographies. This means attention to the agency of people living there and to
scholarships on and from its regions.
- Emphasizing the agency of Southern people and countries. Since they are actively
involved in producing the system.
- Using context-specific understandings of the South to reflect on wider theoretical
debates. This involves two different modes of thinking:
o To consider the qualities of places in the Global South (their history, cultures,
economic structures, political systems) in the explanation of processes
happening there.
o ‘Thickening’ our geographical knowledge of places and cultures of the South
(through study or first-hand research) can help to explain why things are
different between South-North. It can also help us in uncovering some of the
'universal'/’mainstream’ social ideas.
4. Challenging the position of development
We need to challenge the ‘common sense’ and academic divisions that connects the study of
the Global South with the study of development.
- Introducing the Global South is not the same as telling the story of international
development. There is more than development in the South. It can blind us to its
richness and diversity of the Global South.
Three powerful roles for shaping parts of the Global South throughout history
- Wealth creation (and market-led development)
- Rational planning (and the developmental state)
- Popular participation (and the grassroots development initiatives)
Concepts:
- Space: Understanding spatial patterns at a range of scales, but also how different
spaces are connected through networks and flows of people, ideas, and things.
- Place: it is a meaningful site that combines location, locale and sense of place.
o ‘Sense of place’: a site that has meaning for an individual or group
, o ‘Progressive sense of place’: places do not have inherent characteristics that
do not change, but rather they are being continually reworked through the
interactions of economic, social, and political processes in particular locations.
- Power: identified by three aspects
o The ability to command or control the actions of others
o The ability to control and deploy resources
o Power within the operation of everyday techniques, strategies and practices
“Power of representation”
Chapter 2 – Imagining the South (p. 25-60)
Viewing the South from the North (4 types of Northern representation of the South)
In all four cases, the construction of the South is based on Eurocentric assumptions
1. Exoticism and eroticism
European visions of the rest of the world have been based on a process of ‘Othering’, where
the European experience are placed at the center and seen as ‘normal’.
- Exoticism: European perceptions of the Middle East have portrayed it as exotic,
mysterious and static in comparison to the West's dynamism (Orientalism).
o For example: the encounter of Europeans and indigenous population. Due to
the sort of clothing, housing, and lack of Christian beliefs, Europeans
considered the indigenous as a culture lacking civilization.
- Erotic: Discourses around gender and sexuality; European males (colonialist)
perceived the (indigenous) inhabitants, especially women, to be sexually eager. They
presented the ‘discovered and conquered’ lands as female and virgin.
2. The peoples of the South as ‘noble savages’
The representation of the people of the Global South due to their relationship to nature.
- ‘Noble savages’: possessing traits of simplicity, honesty and closeness to nature that
they (the European) themselves had lost.
o This influenced the way indigenous people were treated within colonial:
Repression and patronizing in order to protect the allegedly primitive groups
(or even seen as less than a human) in comparison to the more ‘advanced’
groups. Europeans framed the meeting as civilized versus uncivilized.
Positive note: The role of indigenous peoples in understanding climate change has received
attention, due to their perceived close engagement with nature and ecological knowledge
3. The South as a place of poverty and in need of help
The people of the South are represented as unable to do anything for themselves to make
their lives better; rather, the only way improvements can be made is through assistance
from the North.
Does not mean that the problems, such as famine or diseases, do not exist
- North: represented as generous and active (Agency)
- South: represented as grateful and passive (Passivity)
This representation can be seen in aid advertisements and campaigns. For example, often
use of children/women to focus pity from Northern donors and the Northerners coming to
rescue the starving and dispossessed. Reinforcing this idea of North-Agency and South-
Passivity.
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