XI Congreso Internacional de Salud, Bienestar y Sociedad

Abstract

I examine the history of socio-spatial terminology used to define otherness between the Global North and Global South. In particular I examine late-nineteenth-century discourses regarding “tropical” societies as a primitive foil to Europe’s modernity. I argue that “tropical” discourses in Europe served as the ideological foundation for concepts like Third World and Global South, which are still applied to non-Western societies today. I further argue that despite the lexical evolution of these terms all three are designed to maintain a consistent socio-spatially defined “other” in relation to the West. Moreover, these societies are often associated with simplicity, poverty, nonindustrial economies, corruption, and underdevelopment, which can negatively impact the experiences and mindsets of populations living under these labels. In making these connections I reveal the origins of continuing hegemonic perceptions surrounding people and cultures in the Global South; and more importantly, how these perceptions have shaped discourses and practices of development projects applied to these regions. Breaking down the hegemony of such one-dimensional ways of thinking, regarding vast regions of the globe, is a first step toward reworking transnational development partnerships in ways that adequately account for the complexities of each society involved.