scholarly journals Sociology from the Global South and the Global North: Systematising Characteristics and Relations

2021 ◽  
pp. 6-13
Author(s):  
Kseniia Cherniak

The article defines characteristics and relations between sociology from the Global South and the Global North, depicted in the literature. Despite the variety of research on the topic, studies of Northern and Southern sociology lack definite description of regional sociologies and their (unequal) relations as well as clear indicators used to assign countries to either region in terms of sociology that still uses classical geopolitical division. On the basis of research of knowledge production and academic relations between Southern and Northern sociology, the author defines main issues of discussion and specific characteristics of these regional sociologies and systematises them under one model. The model reflects four main areas of confrontation between sociology from the North and the South: origin and historical development; research orientation and capabilities; recognition and influence on the global scale; research cooperation and flow of knowledge. In addition, the article presents the alternative model for the recently emerged resistant Southern sociology. In the further research the model can be used to define understudied issues, (re)assign countries concerning sociology and investigate the actual characteristics of Southern and Northern sociology in comparison to the ones presented in the research.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-75
Author(s):  
Priya Dixit

This article examines (im)obility in the global visa regime through the experiences of a Global South academic working in the Global North. Drawing on an autoethnographic account of a visa application, this article outlines the ways in which the global visa regime negatively affects a Global South academic’s life. Visa regulations constitute a particular Global South academic subject in the Global North, one whose academic career is characterised by uncertainty and anxiety, as visas can limit access to promotions and to fieldwork and research opportunities. Visa experiences can thus contribute to alienation and non-belonging of Global South scholars in academia, while impacting knowledge production and teaching.


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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie M. Hughes ◽  
Pamela Paxton ◽  
Sharon Quinsaat ◽  
Nicholas Reith

Over the last century, women increasingly transcended national boundaries to exchange information, build solidarity, and bring change. Accounts suggest that as women's international presence expanded, the types of women who participated also shifted. During the first wave of women's movements, White Western women dominated, but over time women of the Global South increasingly organized themselves. Yet we do not know whether North-South inequalities in women's organizational membership have diminished. We collect longitudinal network data on 447 women's international nongovernmental organizations (WINGOs) and use visual tools and network measures to explore changes in the network structure from 1978 to 2008. Results suggest (1) WINGOs—while increasing in frequency—are not connecting to greater numbers of countries, (2) the North/South split in WINGO memberships does not change over time, (3) significant power differences between the North and South persist, and (4) substantial inequalities in WINGO memberships within the Global South also exist.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Stewart

The ‘evidence for development’ community aims to produce research that is useful and used to address issues of poverty and inequality, largely in low- and middle-income countries (often referred to as the ‘global South’). The unspoken norm, however, is that much of the engagement, funding and attention is focused on organizations and individuals in the global North, with the assumption that they are effective in supporting the needs of the global South. In this research paper, I explore the initiatives and the individuals and organizations that are working within the ‘evidence for development’ community in Africa, using the lens of the African philosophy of ubuntu. I present findings from a programme of work undertaken across Africa to identify and better understand the innovation in evidence-informed decision-making taking place across the continent. I demonstrate that, while resource-poor and not well publicized, the evidence community in Africa is world leading in a number of respects. These include the interconnections within its continent-wide network, and the engagement of some governments within its ecosystem. Reflecting on these findings, I discuss and critique the underlying foundations of patriarchy, development and coloniality that shape the field of ‘evidence for development’. I highlight how, in an era of decoloniality, post-‘development’ and antipatriarchy, the ‘evidence for development’ community risks becoming outdated and being ineffective if it does not engage with the challenges inherent within these concepts. I argue that using the alternative lens of ubuntu enables us to celebrate the successes of Southern evidence communities, and to work together on a level footing with the North to tackle the challenges of poverty and inequality through better use of evidence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-105
Author(s):  
Nivedita Menon

Abstract This article addresses three interrelated themes: the institutional transformations of Indian universities since India's independence, debates in India over the assumed universality of Western modes of knowledge production and transmission, and the overarching philosophical question of knowledge as such. It argues that the question of power and prejudice acquires a different dimension when we consider the university of the Global South. If our struggle is to recover knowledges buried by history, to subvert existing knowledge formations, and to generate new knowledges out of local histories and practices, then we cannot be training ourselves merely to enter existing fields of settled knowledges that have emerged from the history and location of the Global North. The article concludes with a look at some attempts that have been made to decolonize knowledge in the Indian academy, which draw on resources from the Global South, while opening up both “Western” and “Indian” knowledges to interrogation.


Author(s):  
Marcelo Afonso Ribeiro

The career development field has produced theories from the Global North that have been imported and applied in the Global South countries. These theories were developed in different socioeconomic and cultural contexts than those of the Global South, which can generally be characterized by vulnerability and instability. Theories and practices must be contextualized if they are to be of assistance to the users of career development services. This chapter has two aims. First, by means of an intercultural dialogue proposal, it discusses the need to contextualize theories to assist people with their career issues and foster social justice. Second, it presents career theories and practices produced in the Global South (Latin America, Africa, and developing countries of Asia) and discusses their potential as an alternative to expand the mainstream career development theories from the North. Such theories can be understood as a Southern contribution to the social justice agenda.


Author(s):  
Katharina Müller

Social security is the protection provided by a given society to individuals and households, particularly in the case of old age. The design and scope of social security protection differs significantly across geographical regions, countries, and population groups, while also undergoing constant transformation over time. On a global scale, the area of social security witnessed three major paradigm shifts over the past 125 years: (1) formalization, sparked by Bismarck’s social insurance legislation in the 1880s; (2) privatization, initiated in the 1980s in Latin America and subsequently spreading to other regions, mainly Eastern Europe; and (3) universalization, as exemplified by the proliferation of non-contributory benefits in the Global South since the 2000s. This chapter outlines these trends to illustrate the transformation of social security in both the Global North and the Global South.


Ethnicities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146879682110370
Author(s):  
Giulia Marchetti ◽  
Loretta Baldassar ◽  
Anita Harris ◽  
Shanthi Robertson

This article seeks to advance our understanding of contemporary transnational youth mobility, drawing on the concept ‘mobile transitions’ to explore scholarly approaches to the mobility practices of young Italians moving abroad. We present a critical literature review of the intersections of migration, youth and transition studies to argue that the literature on youth transnational mobility currently features two contrasting models comprising a ‘transitions-focused’ Global South model and an ‘experiential-focused’ Global North model. This bifurcation fails to account for emergent regional models of mobility that may help to sharpen scholarly understandings of a new generation of youth ‘on the move’. We propose an alternative model positioned somewhere along the spectrum between the Global North and Global South models, which we define as the Mediterranean model of ‘family-centred’ transnational youth mobility. This model reflects aspects of both privileged, experiential youth migrations, which tend to undervalue the impact on transitions to adulthood, and economically driven youth migrations, which tend to focus more directly on the economic dimensions of youth to adulthood transitions. The Mediterranean model highlights more broadly how mobility enables and shapes transitions, which are simultaneously driven by both economic imperatives and individual experiential desires, and mediated through family and culture.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Quark ◽  
Kristen Hopewell ◽  
Elias Alsbergas

Abstract Existing research emphasizes the rise of new coalitions of states from the global South, such as the BRICS, on one hand, and the rise of a transnational capitalist class on the other. Yet only a small body of work has considered how transnational capitalists shape, and are shaped by, inter-state competition. Research neglects explicitly comparative inquiries: do transnational capitalists in the global North and the global South interact with inter-state competition differently? This article analyzes two cases in which transnational firms in the global North and South attempted to shape state institutions at domestic and international levels to strengthen trade liberalization. We argue that, while firms in the global North and South increasingly share preferences for trade liberalization, the way in which these firms pursue that goal is shaped by their historical relationship to the institutions of U.S.-led hegemony. Transnational firms in the global South seek to foment inter-state competition in order to decenter U.S. leadership, while their counterparts in the North seek to minimize and accommodate inter-state competition to preserve U.S. leadership and their own private authority. Both the North and the South are contributing to the geographical re-centering of institutional power in the world economy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-292
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Sanderson

This paper empirically assesses, for the first time, the relationship between immigration and national economic development in both the global North and the global South. A series of panel models demonstrate that immigration exacerbates North-South inequalities through differential effects on average per capita incomes in the global North and global South. Immigration has positive effects on average incomes in both the North and the South, but the effect is larger in the global North. Thus the relationship between immigration and development evinces a Matthew Effect at the world level: by contributing to differential levels of economic development in the North and South, immigration widens international inequalities in the long term, resulting in the accumulation of advantage in the North. The implications of the results are discussed in the context theory and policy on the migration-development nexus.


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