scholarly journals Puzzlement of a déjà vu: Illuminaries of the global South

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 540-556
Author(s):  
Nirmal Puwar

The act of decentring established Euro-North American sites and flows of knowledge as longstanding geopolitical anchors of epistemological authority presents déjà vu scenarios, involved in centre-staging processes. The very position of being a messenger from the ‘North’ of knowledge and theory from the ‘South’ can reproduce the same patterns the undertaking seeks to unsettle. The context in which academic performativity is shaped is integral to both the making and taking of space in intellectual circuits of production and circulation. This article considers how centre-staging in academia performatively involves particular features. As a case in point, the focus is on the centre-staging of Boaventura de Sousa Santos (epistemology of the South) and Raewyn Connell (Southern Theory), who have become globally known for insisting on bringing knowledge from the South to the North. The wider ecology of the global circuits of academia, as well as their own performative dramaturgy, constitutes points of observation. A self-enterprising ownership of big global conceptual programmes places them high in the decentring of knowledge. There is a leap frogging over former stocks of published academic knowledge, as well as a centre-staging of knowledge projects, whereby it is they who become the flag bearers of this enterprise. Within this process it is important to recognise who is illuminated. Bibliographic tracks become traced over, in the very ways in which fields are mapped in order to produce a point of intervention.

1906 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
pp. 301-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. R. Cowper Reed

A Small collection of fossils from the Bokkeveld Beds has recently been sent to me for identification by the South African Museum, and some of them have been generously presented to the Sedgwick Museum. Amongst this material it is interesting to find some genera not previously recorded from the Cape and some new species. The majority of the specimens are in the condition of internal casts, and hence present especial difficulties in their determination, so that in a few cases some uncertainty must remain as to the generic position of the fossils. However, I am able to record for the first time from these beds the occurrence of the well-known lamellibranchiate genus Buchiola, and of a shell which may be identified with Nyussa arguta, Hall, of the North American Devonian. The genus Buchiola occurs in argillaceous nodules from the Zwartberg Pass crowded with individuals of the species which I have named B. subpalmata and with a few examples of an undetermined species. No other associated fossils can be recognised in these nodules, but I am informed that an abundant fauna is found in the beds at this locality.


2020 ◽  
Vol 91 (5) ◽  
pp. 535-552
Author(s):  
Astrid Wood

In the post-colonial context, the global South has become the approved nomenclature for the non-European, non-Western parts of the world. The term promises a departure from post-colonial development geographies and from the material and discursive legacies of colonialism by ostensibly blurring the bifurcations between developed and developing, rich and poor, centre and periphery. In concept, the post-colonial literature mitigates the disparity between cities of the North and South by highlighting the achievements of elsewhere. But what happens when we try to teach this approach in the classroom? How do we locate the South without relying on concepts of otherness? And how do we communicate the importance of the South without re-creating the regional hierarchies that have dominated for far too long? This article outlines the academic arguments before turning to the opportunities and constraints associated with delivering an undergraduate module that teaches post-colonial concepts without relying on colonial constructs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-393
Author(s):  
Manisha Desai

In this article, I focus on the work of the South Asian Network for Gender Transformation (SANGAT) to show how it goes beyond the current turn to the Global South in much contemporary transnational feminisms. It does so in two ways. One, as evident in the name, it defines a regional imaginary, which is place-based and informed by the long history of interactions in the area beyond the colonial, postcolonial, and recent global forces, as well as in conversation with discourses and practices from the North. Second, its praxis connects activists across borders in a process of mutual learning that acknowledges power inequalities and draws upon local as well as transnational feminist theories and methodologies to enable sustainable collaborations for social and gender justice in the region. Thus, rather than reproducing the North/South binaries with its attendant erasures SANGAT seeks to go beyond them to develop place-based yet connected ‘solidarities of epistemologies’ and praxis.


Author(s):  
Doug Ashwell ◽  
Stephen M. Croucher

The Global South–North divide has been conceptualized in political, cultural, economic, and developmental terms. When conceptualizing this divide, issues of economic growth/progress, technology, political and press freedom, and industrialization have all been used as indicators to delineate between the “North” and the “South.” The North has traditionally been seen as more economically, technologically, politically, and socially developed, as well as more industrialized and having more press freedom, for example; the South has been linked with poverty, disease, political tyranny, and overall lack of development. This conceptualization privileges development efforts in the Global South based on democratic government, capitalist economic structures with their attendant neoliberal agenda and processes of globalization. This negative view of the South is a site of contest with people of the South offering alternative and more positive views of the situation in the South and alternatives to globalization strategies. While there may be some identifiable difference between some of the countries in the identified Global South and Global North, globalization (economic, political, technological, etc.) is changing how the very Global South–North divide is understood. To best understand the implications of this divide, and the inequalities that it perpetuates, we scrutinize the Global South, detailing the background of the term “Global South,” and examine the effect of globalization upon subaltern groups in the Global South. We also discuss how academic research using frameworks of the Global North can exacerbate the problems faced by subaltern groups rather than offer them alternative development trajectories by empowering such groups to represent themselves and their own development needs. The culture-centred approach to such research is offered as alternative to overcome such problems. The terms usage in the communication discipline is also explained and the complexity of the term and its future is explored.


1886 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 213-220
Author(s):  
Aug. R. Grote

Again, the genera Citheronia and Eacles are a South American element in our fauna, while the typical Attacinæ, such as Actias, probably belong to the Old World element in our fauna, together with all our Platypteryginœ. Among the Hawk Moths the genera Philampelus and Phlegethontius are of probable South American extraction, though represented now by certain strictly North American species. Mr. Robert Bunker, writing from Rochester, N. Y., records the fact that Philampelus Pandorus, going into chrysaiis Augnst 1, came out Sept. 10 as a moth, showing that in a warmer climate the species would become doublebrooded. And this is undoubtedly the case with many species the farther we go South, where insect activities are not interrupted so long and so strictly by the cold of winter. Since the continuance of the pupal condition is influenced by cold, a diminishing seasonal temperature for ages may have originally affected, if not induced, the transformations of insects as a whole. Butterflies and Moths which are single brooded in the North become double brooded in the South.


Zootaxa ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 1675 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMILY MORIARTY LEMMON ◽  
ALAN R. LEMMON ◽  
JOSEPH T. COLLINS ◽  
DAVID C. CANNATELLA

We describe a new species of chorus frog of the North American treefrog genus Pseudacris from the south-central United States. This new species is morphologically similar to the parapatric species P. feriarum and has thus previously been considered synonymous with this species. The new species is geographically distinct from P. feriarum and from its sister species, P. nigrita. We diagnose the new species based on advertisement call, morphological, and genetic characters.


1979 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale H. Vitt ◽  
Diana G. Horton

The Nahanni and Liard mountain ranges are located at about 61° N latitude and 122° W longitude. They form the easternmost slopes of the Rocky Mountains and lie just east of Nahanni National Park in the southwestern corner of the District of Mackenzie, Northwest Territories. The moss flora of the area is rich in the number of taxa; 207 species and two varieties are reported from this relatively small area. Of these, 53 species are new records for the South Nahanni region. A number of rare or disjunct bryophyte species are found in the area. Moss species which are either disjunct or occur at the edge of their range include Arctoa fulvella (Dicks.) B.S.G., Aulacomnium acuminatum (Lindb. & Arn.) Kindb., Andreaeobryum macrosporum Steere & B. Murray, Geheebia gigantea (Funck) Boul., Isopterygiopsis muelleriana (Schimp.) Iwats., Mnium spinosum (Voit) Schwaegr., Psilopilum cavifolium (Wils.) Hagen, Rhabdoweisia crispata (With.) Lindb., Seligeria calcarea (Hedw.) B.S.G., S. polaris Berggr., Trematodon brevicollis Hornsch., and Trichostomum arcticum Kaal. The North American distribution of these species is mapped. Herbertus stramineus (Dum.) Trev., Metacalypogeia schusterana Hatt. & Mizut., Scapania crassiretis Bryhn, and S. simmonsii Bryhn & Kaal. are four hepatic species of phytogeographic interest.


Paleobiology ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. David Webb

When the isthmian land bridge triggered the Great American Interchange, a large majority of land-mammal families crossed reciprocally between North and South America at about 2.5 Ma (i.e., Late Pliocene). Initially land-mammal dynamics proceeded as predicted by equilibrium theory, with roughly equal reciprocal mingling on both continents. Also as predicted, the impact of the interchange faded in North America after about 1 m.y. In South America, contrary to such predictions, the interchange became decidedly unbalanced: during the Pleistocene, groups of North American origin continued to diversify at exponential rates. Whereas only about 10% of North American genera are derived from southern immigrants, more than half of the modern mammalian fauna of South America, measured at the generic level, stems from northern immigrants. In addition, extinctions more severely decimated interchange taxa in North America, where six families were lost, than in South America, where only two immigrant families became extinct.This paper presents a two-phase ecogeographic model to explain the asymmetrical results of the land-mammal interchange. During the humid interglacial phase, the tropics were dominated by rain forests, and the principal biotic movement was from Amazonia to Central America and southern Mexico. During the more arid glacial phase, savanna habitats extended broadly right through tropical latitudes. Because the source area in the temperate north was six times as large as that in the south, immigrants from the north outnumbered those from the south. One prediction of this hypothesis is that immigrants from the north generally should reach higher latitudes in South America than the opposing contingent of land-mammal taxa in North America. Another prediction is that successful interchange families from the north should experience much of their phylogenetic diversification in low latitudes of North America before the interchange. Insofar as these predictions can be tested, they appear to be upheld.


1897 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-56
Author(s):  
William H. Ashmead

The interesting new species of water-bug described below was received some time ago from Abbé P. A. Bégin, of Sherbrooke, Canada. It was captured swimming on a fresh-water stream some little distance above Sherbrooke, and is of more than ordinary interest, from the fact that it belongs to the genus Halobatopsis, Bianchi, a genus not yet recognized in the North American fauna, and only recently characterized, being based upon the South American Halobates platensis, Berg., also a fresh-water species.


Author(s):  
Marcel Van der Linden

Often, all too often, global working-class solidarity remains fragile, conditional or fails to be realized in practice, whatever the lofty rhetoric may be. The present paper explores one possible explanation: workers in the North profit from the exploitation of workers in the South through cheap commodities and services, and additional job opportunities. For example, wage-earners in the North can buy T-shirts so advantageously because their real wages are much higher than the real wages of labourers in the Global South. This is what I would like to call a relational inequality within the world working class: some workers are better off because other workers are worse off. The paper presents a very tentative historical outline of global relational inequality since the 1830s.


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