<incom> OII invites applications from the global South

[McLaughlin, Lisa M. Dr.]

Fuzzy to say the least, particularly given that the "digital divide" is not strictly a North-South divide. I teach International and Comparative Media Studies and Global Media Governance, and the question of accuracy in terms and designations is one of the more difficult conceptual and material issues to address. Globa North/Global South, First World/Third World, developed/developing (underdeveloped--very troubling), industrialized/industrializing or NICs....each of these binaries has its problems, perhaps because heuristic devices typically are unhelpful if one doesn't consider how their terms of reference are fused to one another.

By the way, recently I contributed a chapter to a book on knowledge work and heard from the editors that one of the most difficult editorial decisions had to do with which binary to use for consistency purposes, as authors made reference to the full range of possible designations comparing those with information resources to those with fewer information resources. I have wondered if there are better descriptors in other languages, much as 'public sphere' is captured in German in a way that is inexpressible in English.

Regards,

Lisa
________________________________________

From: incom-l-bounces at incommunicado.info [incom-l-bounces at incommunicado.info] On Behalf Of Steve Cisler [sacisler at yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 2:54 PM
To: Incom
Subject: Re: <incom> OII invites applications from the global South

Does anyone else find the designation 'global South'
to be rather fuzzy? The application from the Institute
did not help. Evidently, you are supposed to know if
you fall into that category. Of course, if you are
Dutch, Canadian, Japanese, etc. you need not apply. If
you are in Uganda, or Nepal or Paraguay, fine. Fill it
in.

But there are other countries with resurgent or
booming economies (or just a steady stream of oil
revenues) that make me wonder. What about places like
Chile, Russia,  Dubai.  When does  a country move from
global South which has little to do with geography and
like S. Korea, join 'the north'?

Steve Cisler
_______________________________________________
incom-l mailing list
incom-l at incommunicado.info
http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/incom-l