Global North and Global South

Global North and Global South are terms denoting a method of grouping countries based on their defining characteristics with regard to socioeconomics. The terms refer to developed and developing/least developed countries respectively. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global South broadly comprises Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia (excluding Israel, Japan, South Korea), and Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand). Most of the Global South's countries are commonly identified as lacking in their standard of living, which includes having lower incomes, high levels of poverty, high population growth rates, inadequate housing, limited educational opportunities, and deficient health systems, among other issues. Additionally, these countries' cities are characterized by their poor infrastructure. Opposite to the Global South is the Global North, which the UNCTAD describes as broadly comprising Northern America and Europe, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. Consequently the two groups do not correspond to the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern Hemisphere, as many of the Global South's countries are geographically located in the north and vice-versa. The Global North and the Global South are often defined in terms of their differing levels of wealth, economic development, income inequality, and strength of democracy, as well as by their political freedom and economic freedom, as defined by a variety of freedom indices. Countries of the Global North tend to be wealthier, and export technologically advanced manufactured products, among other characteristics. In contrast, countries of the Global South tend to be relatively poorer, and heavily dependent on their largely agrarian-based economic primary sectors. Some scholars suggest that the inequality gap between the Global North and the Global South has narrowed since globalization. Others contend that the Global South has instead become poorer vis-à-vis the Global North. The Global South classification, as used by governmental and developmental organizations, was first introduced as a more open and value-free alternative to Third World, and likewise potentially "valuing" terms such as developed and developing. Countries of the Global South are also described as being newly industrialized or in the process of industrializing. Many of them are current or former subjects of colonialism. Since World War II, "South–South cooperation" (SSC) to "challenge the political and economic dominance of the North" has become more prominent among the Global South's countries. It has become popular due to the geographical migration of manufacturing and production activity from the Global North to the Global South, and has influenced diplomatic policies of the Global South's more powerful countries, such as China. These contemporary economic trends have enhanced the potential of economic growth and industrialization in the Global South.

Definition

The terms Global North and Global South are not strictly geographical, and are not "an image of the world divided by the equator, separating richer countries from their poorer counterparts." Rather, geography should be more readily understood as economic and migratory, in the "wider context of globalization or global capitalism." In general, definitions for Global North and Global South, do not refer to the geographical North or the geographical South. The Global North broadly comprises Northern America and Europe, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, as per the UNCTAD. The Global South broadly comprises Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia excluding Israel, Japan, and South Korea, and Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand, also according to the UNCTAD. Some, such as Australian sociologists Fran Collyer and Raewyn Connell, have argued that Australia and New Zealand are marginalized in similar ways to other Global South countries, due to their geographical isolation and location in the Southern Hemisphere. The term Global North is often used interchangeably with developed countries, whereas the term Global South with developing countries. Characteristically, most countries in the Global South are commonly identified as lacking in their standard of living, these include having: lower incomes, high levels of poverty, high population growth rates, limited educational opportunities, deficient health care systems, among other issues. Also, cities in the Global South are identified for their poor infrastructure. Economies of the Global North are diversified, whereas the agriculture sector is the major contributor to economic activity in the Global South.

Development of the terms

Carl Oglesby used the term global south in 1969, writing in Catholic journal Commonweal in a special issue on the Vietnam War. Oglesby argued that centuries of northern "dominance over the global south […] [has] converged […] to produce an intolerable social order." The term gained appeal throughout the second half of the 20th century, which rapidly accelerated in the early 21st century. It appeared in fewer than two dozen publications in 2004, but in hundreds of publications by 2013. The emergence of the new term meant looking at the troubled realities of its predecessors, i.e.: Third World or developing world. The term Global South, in contrast, was intended to be less hierarchical. Compared to the alternatives, the term has been deemed useful as it constitutes a lens through which this group of countries keep seeing and narrating their problems in a distinctive way vis-à-vis "developed" countries in Europe, North America and Asia. The idea of categorizing countries by their economic and developmental status began during the Cold War with the classifications of East and West. The Soviet Union and China represented the East, and the United States and their allies represented the West. The term Third World came into parlance in the second half of the twentieth century. It originated in a 1952 article by Alfred Sauvy entitled "Trois Mondes, Une Planète". Early definitions of the Third World emphasized its exclusion from the east–west conflict of the Cold War as well as the ex-colonial status and poverty of the peoples it comprised.

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