This book explores the possible meanings of the 'Global South' and assesses the advantages and disadvantages of adopting it for understanding the contemporary world. It casts a wide exploratory net, addressing historical transformations of world-interpretation and wider cultural-intellectual meanings.

AcknowledgementsIllustrationsContributors 1. Finding one's way in global social spacePeter Wagner 2. Does the world have a spatio-political form? PreliminariesGerard Rosich 3. The BRICS countries: time and space in moral narratives of developmentCláudio Costa Pinheiro 4. Russia between East, West and North: Comments on the history of moral mappingMaxim Khomyakov 5. Digging for class: thoughts on the writing of a global history of social distinctionJacob Dlamini 6. North–South and the question of recognition: a constellation saturated with tensionsÀ. Lorena Fuster 7. On spaces and experiences: modern displacements, interpretations and universal claimsAurea Mota 8. The South as exileNathalie Karagiannis

Asks whether 'Global South' and 'Global North' are useful for understanding the current global constellation. Analyses the recent global transformation that allegedly made the Third World' disappear and the 'Global South' emerge. Draws on global history, conceptual history, comparative literature, social and political theory, political philosophy and social history to develop a full, interdisciplinary picture of the uses of South and North.