Saying “The South”: When the Other Categorizes the World

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Although it might appear as a straightforward mark of geographical location, the grouping together of a plurality of countries under one single name, the South, effectively divides up the world, from a viewing point that is not in fact neutral. The so-called “polite” discourse on development brings two human groups into linguistic limelight, one of which, the North, in a top position (developed) represents the prototype of the category, whereas the other, the South, in the lower position (developing) is stereotyped with reference to the norm. This dialectic, based on unequal positions of power, which is not without precedence, lets what it dissimulates read through: a relation of dominance which it helps to perpetuate under new adornment. In the sphere where discourses on development circulate, this categorization is not only the representation of a de facto state, but confers a geopolitical reality and a social place on the named entity. Naming in such a way has the value of an effective act in the organization of the world order.