A Demographic Case for a Global South Focus in Development Studies

Although demographic transitions across the Global South have been progressing towards what might be considered as convergence with the Global North, an understanding of this core socio-structural transformation of modern development highlights the importance for development studies to continue prioritising a Global South focus. It is a global process, driven by the remote causal factor of mortality decline that can be considered as universal in occurrence as well as normative morality. Yet recognising this global and universal character does not challenge the importance of differentiating the earlier, first mover historical experiences of demographic transition (roughly contiguous with the Global North), from the later contemporary transitions from the mid-twentieth century onwards (roughly contiguous with the Global South). Rather, differentiation is important because the historical sequencing of transition, and the condition of lateness in this sequencing, have profound implications on macro-structural processes of development that cannot be explained through differences in behaviour, policies or institutions. When combined with capitalist economic development, the case for having a Global South focused interdisciplinary field of social sciences is even stronger, to maintain and cultivate the space for focusing on the differentiated challenges faced by the Global South, and for providing a counter current against the dominant northern-centric tendency of scholarship in most other social science disciplines.