Europe’s South and Global South: Historical Difference and Global Conjuncture

To begin with, let me clarify that I do not wish to approach ‘Europe’s South’ and ‘Global South’ as pregiven, stable, homogenous and bounded entities.  I wish to approach them as constructs which have been constructed and reconstructed through various discourses. For example, what we today refer to as ‘Global South’ has been previously constructed as ‘Colonies’, ‘Third World’ ‘Developing countries’ to therecent one, ‘Non-West’. ‘Global South’, like a palimpsest, carries layers of these previous constructions. Also, the tension underlying past constructions of the Europe’s South – ‘the cradle of the Western civilization’, ‘an Orient within’ and ‘backward periphery’ – continues to resonate in its present constructions – ‘indebted’ and ‘exotic tourist destination’.