Invitation to the IPW Lecture What or where is the “Global South”? Insights for the study of world politics
Lecturer: Sebastian Haug (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik/Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen)
Commentary: Kristina Dietz (Universität Wien, Institut für Internationale Entwicklung)
Moderation: Tobias Boos (IPW)
When: Tuesday, 8 March 2022, 17:30h.
Where: online via Zoom (access link see below) & on-site in Konferenzraum IPW (A222), NIG, 2nd floor, Universitätsstraße 7, A-1010 Vienna.
Abstract:
The ‘Global South’ has become a popular category in the practice and study of world politics. From climate change activists to diplomats negotiating development finance, references to the ‘North’ and – even more so – the ‘South’ have made it to the centre of global debates. Building on a Special Issue recently published by the journal Third World Quarterly, I suggest approaching the ‘Global South’ as a meta category: a tool that helps map global space by classifying a wide range of phenomena. In this talk I discuss the current uses of ‘South’ and ‘North’ in academic scholarship and provide an overview of different meanings associated with the two terms. As a relational category, I argue, the ‘Global South’ can help with analysing some of today’s structural dynamics that have concrete implications at different scales. It offers insights into how an explicit and differentiated engagement with meta categories allows us to reflect on, and improve, the tools we use for making sense of global space.
Access link (Zoom):
Meeting-ID: 632 8047 4908, Kenncode: 372421
