GLOBAL

DIVIDES
THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH
The terms the North and the South, when
used in a global context, are alternative
designations for “developed” and
“developing” countries. Together, the
North and South constitute virtually the
entire global population. As terms, the
North and the South emerged during the
1970s, probably simultaneously, and in
contrast with each other.
Our Unequal World
The North/South Divide.
 Inequality
 Our world is a very unequal place.

 There are huge social & economic inequalities between different

places.

 This means that many countries are rich, while others are very poor.

 The rich countries are mainly in the North, and the poorer countries are
mainly in the south.

 Poor countries are usually called Developing countries and rich

countries are usually called Developed countries.
Some countries are developing faster than others. Many
Asian countries are quickly developing while many African
countries are slowly developing.
Inequality
 Same city, different life….

Mukesh Ambani, the fifth richest man in the world, is building a 550-foot-tall, 27
story skyscraper as his family’s private home in Mumbai, India.
Developed and Developing Countries

 List 3 countries in the developing world and 3 countries in the

developed world.
Developed and Developing Countries
What does the cartoon tell us about the type of work
people do in the different types of countries?
The pie-chart shows the percentage of workers in Bangladesh
working in the different sectors.

Why is this typical for slowly developing countries?

Our Unequal World – Life Expectancy

Q. Why is life expectancy different in developing countries

compared to developed countries?
Q. How does access to safe drinking water influence life
expectancy?
Q. Name 5 countries where less than 65% of people can access safe
drinking water.
Water Use and Wealth

 People who live in

wealthy countries
use much more
water than
people who live in
poor countries.

 Q. Why do you
think this is?

 Q. In Ireland we
do not have to
pay for the water
we use at home. Is
this a good thing?
In some countries the problem is getting worse…

Q. Can you think of any reasons why the life expectancy of

people in these countries has decreased?
 In some countries the problem is improving…
Life Expectancy at birth in years:

Country 1980 2002

Oman 60 74
Bangladesh 58 61
Indonesia 55 66
Bolivia 52 63
Honduras 60 66

Q. List some things a government could do to increase the life

expectancy of the people in their country.
Our Unequal World – Infant Mortality

 Infant Mortality Rates

means the number of
children dying before
aged 1 year.

 Ireland – 6 babies / 1000.

 Mali – 100 babies / 1000.
 Somalia – 117 babies /
1000.

Q. Why do you think

more
babies are dying in these
poor countries?
The World’s Natural Resources
 Although they have only a small percentage of the world’s
population, the rich countries of the north use most of the
earth’s natural resources. Q. Why do you think this is?
Inequality
THE GLOBAL SOUTH:
ZONE OF TURMOIL
 The Global South is a term that has been emerging in
transnational and postcolonial studies to refer to what
may also be called the “Developing world" (i.e., Africa,
Latin America, and the developing countries in Asia),
"developing countries," "less developed countries,"
and "less developed regions.
 The Global South is more than the extension of a
"metaphor for underdeveloped countries.“
 In general, it refers to these countries' "interconnected histories of colonialism, neo-
imperialism, and differential economic and social change through which large inequalities
in living standards, life expectancy, and access to resources are maintained
 Many of the people in the global south faces poverty, war and tyranny
 (cruel and oppressive government or rule).
THE GLOBAL SOUTH:
ZONE OF TURMOIL
 Although democracy has spread to much of the
global south since the 1980’s , the commitments
of some of these governments to regular elections
and human rights are fragile.
 Many global south countries lack well-developed
domestic market economies based on
entrepreneurship and private enterprise.
 Global South countries have been unable to evolve an indigenous
technology appropriate to their own resources and have been dependent
on powerful Global North multinational corporation (MNCs) to transfer
technical know-how.

 This means that research and development expenditures are directed

toward solutions of the Global North’s problems, with technological
advances seldom meeting the needs of the Global South.
 Life is a struggle for those who live in extreme poverty.
 Poverty is a force that “robs you of confidence…
steals your pride, deadens your ambition, limits
your imagination and psychologically cripples,”
(Mazumdar, 2009:34)
 According to criteria used by UN Economic
and Social Council, forty-nine countries
currently comprise the least developed
countries (LDC’s) of the Global South.

 They have gross income (GNI) per capita of

under $900 per year, and their overwhelmingly rural populations depend
on agriculture for subsistence and frequently rely on barter in their economic
exchanges.
 These low-income countries are not significant participants in the global
market.
 Their meager exports are largely confined to inexpensive primary products,
including food stuff ( cocoa, coffee, and tea,)minerals, hides, and timber.
Because they consume most of what they produce, theirs is typically a
subsistence economy, and the prospects for change are dim, because
most of these countries have been bypassed by direct foreign investment
and ignored by foreign aid donors.
 Geographic location also hampers the economic development in Global
South countries.
 Landlocked developing countries that lack navigable rivers or efficient
road and rail networks are highly disadvantaged due to expenses they
face in accessing world markets.
 Some small island developing states are burdened with high transportation
costs as well, largely due to the remoteness from major global markets.
INTERNAL FACTORS: CLASSICAL ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT THEORY’S INTERPRETATION

 Liberal economic development theories of modernization emerged in the

early post-World War II era.
 They argued that the major barriers to development were posed by the
Global South countries’ own internal characteristics.
 Productivity remained low due to managerial inefficiency, a lack of
modern technology, and inadequate transportation and communication
infrastructures.
 To Overcome these barriers, most classical theorists, recommended that
the wealthy countries supply various “missing components” of
development, such as investment capital through foreign aid or private
foreign direct investment.
 Once sufficient capital was accumulated to promote growth, these
theorists predicted that is benefits would eventually “trickle down” to broad
segments of society policy.

 Walt R. Rostow, an economics historian and US policy maker formalized this

theory in his influential book. The stages of Economics Growth (1960).

 He predicted that traditional societies beginning the path of development

would inevitably pass through various stages by means of the free market
and would eventually take off to become similar to the mass consumption
societies of the capitalist North.
EXTERNAL FACTORS: DEPENDECY
THEORY’S INTERPRETATION
 Emphasized external factors
 Development is not a linear process that all societies uniformly follow
 Dependency theory- a view of development that the leading capitalist
states dominate and exploit the poorer counties on the periphery of the
world economy.
 Its central proposition is that the structure of the capitalist world economy is
based on a division of labor between a dominant core and a subordinate
periphery.
 As a result of colonialism, the global South countries that make up the
periphery have been forced into an economic role where by they export
raw materials and import finished goods.
Maintain that global inequalities
cannot be reduced so long as
developing counties continue to
specialize in primary products for
which there are often numerous
competing suppliers and limited
demand.
Argues that countries in the global
South are vulnerable to culture
penetration by outside forces, which
saturate them with values from other
societies.
 Once cultural penetration occurs, locals who embrace foreign values may
gain economically from the ties that they forge with government and
corporation doing business in their county.
 Dualism refers to the existence of two separate economic and social
sectors operating side by side.
 Dual societies typically have rural, impoverished, and neglected sector
operating alongside an urban, developing or advanced sector—but with
little interaction between the two.
 Although dependency theory has great appeal within the Global South, it
cannot easily explain the emergence of many people call newly
industrialized countries (NICs) members of the Global South that have
begun exporting manufactured goods to the Global North.
 Dependent development-describes the industrialization of peripheral areas
in a system otherwise dominated by the Global North.\
 The term suggest the possibility of either growing or declining prosperity, but
not outside the confines of a continuing dominance-dependence
relationship between North and South.