GLOBAL DIVIDES

THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH

John Wayne V. Jacinto
November 6, 2018
• Define the term “Global South”;
• Differentiate the Global South from the Third World; and
• Analyze how a new conception of global relations emerged from
the experiences of Latin American countries.
 GLOBAL INEQUALITY
• The global realities make it obvious that inequalities in the
different areas around the world exist. It is said that those in
the North show their affluence over those in the south (Ritzer
2011).
 GLOBAL INEQUALITY
• “The most common way of looking at economic inequality in
the world is to focus on the differences between the North
and the South, core and periphery, or between the developed
and less developed areas of the world. However, Paul Collier (2
007, forthcoming) argues that in making that gross distinction we
ignore the poorest people in the world, what he calls “ the bottom
billion”.”
• “Among the other countries that contain large numbers of the
bottom billion are Haiti, Bolivia, Laos, North Korea, and Yemen”
(Ritzer 2011).
 GLOBAL INEQUALITY
Inequality
global poverty
developed and developing countries (e-waste)
“global digital divide” – access to internet, infrastructure,
language,
access to ICT resources such as the Internet and the
opportunities derived from such access (Ritzer 2011)
population (fertility rate, population growth)
post-colonialism: former colonizers and former colonies
socialism/communism and democratic/capitalist
SOURCE
HTTPS://WWW.WEFORUM.ORG/A
GENDA/2016/03/THIS-IS-THE-
EXTENT-OF-THE-
DEMOGRAPHIC-DIGITAL-
DIVIDE/
HTTP://WWW.PEWGLOBAL.ORG/
2016/02/22/SMARTPHONE-
OWNERSHIP-AND-INTERNET-
USAGE-CONTINUES-TO-CLIMB-
IN-EMERGING-ECONOMIES/
 RURAL-URBAN AND INEQUALITY
• It is generally thought that the South possesses agricultural areas (Ritzer
2011).
• The South played an important role in the global agriculture. For
example, the British outsourced agricultural production to the South (e.g. to
India) during the height of their empire. However, contemporary globalization
has profoundly affected and altered North – South relationships in agriculture
and much else (Ritzer 2011).
• But, there is a crucial development in the relations of agricultural production
(McMichael as cited in Ritzer 2011) such as the North dominated the global
agribusiness particularly of the US.
• These new relations have come to be known as the “law of comparative
advantage”.
 MIGRATION
RESULTS FROM INEQUALITY
• South-to-North Migration – moving from poor areas to more
affluent areas
• South-to-South Migration – moving from poorer Southern
countries to somewhat better-off Southern countries
Source: https://www.cartoonmovement.com/collection/66
Source:
https://www.cartoonmovem
ent.com/collection/66
 GLOBAL DIVIDES

A “double” divide caused by political power (colonial

legacies, democratic “influence”), economic dependency
(core-periphery relations, foreign debt, etc.), and
importation/exportation of resources (trading relations,
availability of resources, etc.) (Ayresa 2015).
• The Blue Cou
ntries (located
on the northern
side of the
division):
indicates the
wealthy
countries
The Red Coun
tries (located
on the
southern side
of the division):
indicates the
poor
developing
countries
As cited in Canuday (n.d.)
 THE NORTH (FIRST WORLD
COUNTRIES)
The North of the Divide is comprised of countries which have
developed economies and account for over 90% of all
manufacturing industries in the world. Although these countries
account for only one-quarter of the total global population, they
control 80% of the total income earned around the world.
Countries comprising the North include The United States,
Canada, all countries in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand
as well as the developed countries in Asia such as Japan and
South Korea.
(Sawe 2017).
 THE SOUTH (THIRD WORLD
COUNTRIES)
The South is comprised of countries with developing
economies which were initially referred to as Third World
countries during the Cold War. An important characteristic
of countries in the South is the relatively low GDP and the high
population. (Sawe 2017).
 THE GLOBAL SOUTH
The Global South as a critical concept
ECONOMIC: primarily refer to economically disadvantaged nation-states
and as a post–Cold War alternative to “Third World”;
CULTURAL: In literary and cultural studies it addresses the spaces and
peoples negatively impacted by contemporary capitalist globalization;
deterritorialized geography of capitalism’s externalities; and
POLITICAL: the resistant imaginary of a transnational political subject
that results from a shared experience of subjugation under contemporary
global capitalism; forged when the world’s Souths mutually recognize one
another and view their conditions as shared (Abuso 2018).
 THE BANDUNG CONFERENCE
(1955)
• 29 countries participated
• Established to combat
colonialism and
neocolonialism by either the
US or the USSR
• Birth of the non-aligned
movement
 LEGACIES OF BANDUNG

• Third world solidarity

• Developing world, Global
South,
• Cementing the emphasis on
national development against
“neocolonial intervention.”
• Regionally-driven
internationalism (Abuso 2018).
 LEGACIES OF BANDUNG
• Collapse of USSR and the Socialist-bloc (Second World) in 1989 render the
notion of the Third World redundant [Reference: Berger, Mark T. “The End
of the ‘Third World’?” Third World Quarterly 15n(1994] as cited in Canuday
(n.d.)
• End of the cold war led to shifts in regional/world references: “North-
South dichotomy” [References: Arif Dirlik, “Spectres of the Third World”
Global Modernity and the End of the Three Worlds,” Third World Quarterly
25 (2004): Vicky Randall, “Using and Abusing the Concept of the Third
World: Geopolitics and the Comparative Political Study of Development and
Underdevelopment,” Third World Quarterly 25 (2004)] as cited in Canuday
(n.d.)

• Modernization theorists’ ideas are
rooted in the functionalist
perspective of inequality. This theory
believes that poverty is a basic
human condition; so all countries
were poor to begin with (Ayresa
2015).
GLOBAL DIVIDES
• Dependency theory is founded in
the conflict perspective of inequality.
According to dependency theorists,
the factor that mainly drives the
“double divide” is colonial
imperialism that exploits poor
countries by excessive exportation
of resources, taking additional
profits, and controlling through
neocolonialism (Ayresa 2015).
 GLOBAL RELATIONS AND THE
LATIN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
“Latin American Dependency Theory”
Latin American countries exported primary goods like food products, lumber and
minerals to the Global North, they tended to re-import manufactured products
from these same countries.
The value added to these manufactured commodities generated profit for
northern countries while maintaining Latin American countries in a perpetual
trade deficit.
wealthy global core exists in a semi-permanent extractive relationship with a
low-income periphery.
 GLOBAL RELATIONS AND THE
LATIN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
“Latin American Dependency Theory”
focuses on the persistent levels of under-development in Latin America by situating
national economies within their global economic context

under-development is the direct result of capital intervention, rather than a condition of

“lacking” development or investment

“South-South Cooperation”: cooperation bet. Global south countries

 SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION
Sharing of knowledge and experiences
between developing countries,
Latin American initiatives to reduce
poverty and inequality to Africa,
 SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION

transfers of best practices through diverse instruments and

methodologies aimed at capturing between Latin American
countries and neighboring or fellow global south countries,

systematizing and adapting successful experiences,

mapping and researching multilateral support for such

exchanges in the region.
 REFERENCES
• Abuso, G. (2018). Global Divides and Regionalism (PowerPoint Presentation).
• Ayresa (2015). The Global Divides. Retrieved at https
://rampages.us/ayresa/2015/09/10/the-global-divide/
• Canuday, J.J. (n.d.) The Global South (PowerPoint Presentation).
• Ritzer, G. (2011). Globalization: The Essentials. USA: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
• Sawe, B.E. (2017). What is the North-South Divide?. Retrieved at
https://www.rgs.org/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?nodeguid=9c1ce781-9117-4741-af0a-
a6a8b75f32b4&lang=en-GB