User:Jnestorius/Third World

<Third World

Sauvy

Alfred Sauvy

1952:

• Introduction:

  Nous parlons volontiers des deux mondes en présence, de leur guerre possible, de leur coexistence, etc., oubliant trop souvent qu'il en existe un troisième, le plus important et, en somme, le premier dans la chronologie. C'est l'ensemble de ceux que l'on appelle, en style Nations Unies, les pays sous-développées.

  We speak freely of the present two worlds —of their possible war, their coexistence, and so on— too often forgetting that there is a third: the most important and, in short, the first chronogically. It comprises what are called, in United Nations parlance, the under-developed countries.

  Sans ce troisième ou ce premier monde, la coexistence des deux autres ne poserait pas de grand problème.

  Without this third (or first) world, the coexistence of the other two would not pose much of a problem

  Ce qui importe à chacun des deux mondes, c'est de conquérir le troisième ou du moins de l'avoir de son côté.

  What matters to each of these two worlds is to conquer the third, or at least to have it on its side

  la lutte pour la possession du troisième monde

  the struggle to possess the third world

• Conclusion:

  Et peut-être ... le monde n^o 1, pourrait-il, même en dehors de toute solidarité humaine, ne pas rester insensible à une poussée lente et irrésistible, humble et féroce, vers la vie. Car ce Tiers Monde ignoré, exploité, méprisé comme le Tiers État, veut, lui aussi, être quelque chose.

  And perhaps ... world #1, even discounting any human fellow-feeling, could not fail to notice a drive —slow but irresistible, humble but fierce— towards life. For this Third World, ignored, exploited and despised, exactly as the Third Estate was before the Revolution, would also like to become something.

Note the difference between troisième and tiers is between ordinal third (first, second, third, fourth) and fractional third (whole, half, third, quarter). The analogy with Tiers État (Third Estate) brings out the latter. The conclusion veut être quelque chose alludes to What Is the Third Estate? (1789): Que demande-t-il? À devenir quelque chose.

On reflection, I'm not sure what the tiers−troisième distinction is in general in French; the above analysis would suggest nobility and the clergy were also thirds as fractions, which makes no sense. OTOH it's also unclear in the Estates General which of the nobility and the clergy was first and which second.

1963:

When I first used the phrase ‘Third World’ in 1952, it applied better than today to a specific part of the globe; since then its political and its economic-demographic definitions have to some extent moved apart. Politically the Third World includes relatively advanced countries outside the big blocs, such as Yugoslavia; from the economic and demographic point of view it can comprise China and Albania, Guinea, and even perhaps Cuba. This second definition will apply here.

Quotes

George E. Probst and Robert Redfield March 1953 used "third world" for any non-US non-Iron Curtain; in particular Western Europe, but also perhaps India and the Middle East. Redfield on 22 March at University of Chicago roundtable with Hans Morgenthau and Calvin Stillman; Probst at Senate committee hearing on 27 March.

• Probst
  • 'the "third world” between America on the one side and Russia and her satellites on the other' [p.652]
  • mentions Western Europe, British, French, Italian [p.653]
  • 'a conversation with our friends and potential friends in the third world lying between Russia and the United States ... the interchange of educational and cultural materials between America and this third world where live our friends and potential friends abroad.' [p.656]
  • mentions Damascus [p.660] in context of Stillman, a Middle East expert, but "the Moslem world" [p662] as instance of local evaluation of VOA broadcasts
  • India and Middle East instances of "these in-between countries" [p.665] interested in learning about life in the US
  • "I do think the third world is of tremendous importance. It is one that we can do the most about. It is the one that we can know the most about and, for obvious reasons, our allies are there." [665-6]
• J. William Fulbright "this third world, as you call it" Bourke B. Hickenlooper "this third world to which you referred"
• Redfield
  • "What can words and pictures do for our interests when they are addressed to the third world. the peoples who are outside the Iron Curtain and yet who are not Americans?" [p.672]
  • "our effort as it is directed toward this third world of the potentially friendly people ... developing a conversation with these people who live in the third world between Russia and us, with opportunity for them to talk and plenty of opportunity for us to listen to what they say" [p. 674]

Eric Johnston 1958:

Only 12 years ago ... there was no such third world. Throughout the great land mass of Asia and Africa, the colonial powers of Europe held sway as they had for centuries. ... The third world concerns us because it is poor and we of the developed Western world are rich.

Mao Zedong and Kenneth Kaunda in 1974 (see Three Worlds Theory):

• Mao: We hope the Third World will unite. The Third World has a large population!
• Kaunda: That’s right.
• Mao: Who belongs to the First World?
• Kaunda: I think it ought to be world of exploiters and imperialists.
• Mao: And the Second World?
• Kaunda: Those who have become revisionists.
• Mao: I hold that the U.S. and the Soviet Union belong to the First World. The middle elements, such as Japan, Europe, Australia and Canada, belong to the Second World. We are the Third World.
• Kaunda: I agree with your analysis, Mr. Chairman.
• Mao: The U.S. and the Soviet Union have a lot of atomic bombs, and they are richer. Europe, Japan, Australia and Canada, of the Second World, do not possess so many atomic bombs and are not so rich as the First World, but richer than the Third World. What do you think of this explanation?
• Kaunda: Mr. Chairman, you analysis is very pertinent and correct.
• Mao: We can discuss it.
• Kaunda: I think we can reach agreement without discussion, because I believe this analysis is already very pertinent.
• Mao: The Third World is very populous.
• Kaunda: Precisely so.
• Mao: All Asian countries, except Japan, belong to the Third World. All of Africa and also Latin America belong to the Third World.

Gamini Dissanayake, 1980:

When the phrase “Third World” was introduced to international politics by a French political scientist in the mid-1950s, it was used to describe those nations that refused to be drawn into the policy of international confrontation pursued by mutually hostile blocs There was a certain dignity to the phrase then: a “third way” was possible in world affairs, the phrase implied. Unfortunately, the phrase has gone down in common use as a symbol, in global shorthand, to encapsulate conditions of backwardness as opposed to the comfort and overall superiority of the First World. I reject the widely prevalent connotation of “third-rate” or “third class”.

PL Berger 1984: The quasi-mythological phrase" Third World" came into vogue, while the bureaucratic agencies concerned with the poorer regions fell back either on the relatively optimistic term "

Christopher Clapham, 1985:

The phrase ‘the third world’ is generally taken, and is taken here, to include the Americas south of the United States; the whole of Africa; Asia apart from the Soviet Union, China and Japan; and the oceanic islands apart from Australia and New Zealand. [more discussion of definitions]

Edward Horesh 1985:

The phrase ‘Third World’ is of doubtful origin and very uncertain in meaning, rich in often contradictory connotation. Yet is is used with equal aplomb by officials, journalists and

Caroline Thomas 1999:

[not really a redefinition of Third World, more an analogy]

As we enter the new millennium, the Third World, far from disappearing, is becoming global. The dynamic of economic driven globalization is resulting in the global reproduction of Third World problems. ... The demise of the communist bloc and the associated rejection of ‘real existing socialism’ as a mode of economic organization have provided a specific additional fillip to the reconfiguration of the ‘Third World’. The 1980s, and more particularly the 1990s, have witnessed the mainstreaming of liberal economic ideology via the Washington consensus. ... In its wake we have seen a deepening of existing inequalities between and within states

Robert J. McMahon 2001:

A convenient political catchphrase that rather loosely lumped together the predominantly poor, nonwhite, and uncommitted areas of the globe, “Third World” originally connoted an arena of contestation between West and East, the so-called First and Second World.

Dennis Merrill 2002:

the labels applied to the nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America are problematic. The often-used phrase “Third World,” which I have employed in my own work, is, as we all know, a creation of Western political culture – either a Cold War catch-all for nations outside the NATO and Warsaw Pact alliances, or perhaps a French point of reference recalling the tumultuous Third Estate of revolutionary fame. Another popular nomenclature, “periphery,” drawn from geopolitical theory, again betrays a Eurocentric bias

Forrest D. Colburn 2006:

The most evocative term, though, is "Third World." It is used to refer collectively to all the poorer countries of the world. While it suggests poverty, it also evokes countries "on the move"—politically and economically—and, above all, in solidarity with one another, pursuing a common political agenda, one that demands attention—and resources—from the rich countries of the world. This conception, however, is especially misleading. It is dated and has lost all of its conceptual usefulness.

Bernard Makuza, 2006:

The "old Third World" no longer exists, Mr. Makuza said; it has divided into three groups — those countries that have undergone sustained economic growth and are catching up with the developed world; those developing more moderately; and those still struggling to participate effectively in globalization.

Robert Zoellick 2010:

If 1989 saw the end of the “Second World” with Communism’s demise, then 2009 saw the end of what was known as the “Third World”: We are now in a new, fast-evolving multipolar world economy – in which some developing countries are emerging as economic powers; others are moving towards becoming additional poles of growth; and some are struggling to attain their potential within this new system – where North and South, East and West, are now points on a compass, not economic destinies. ... The outdated categorizations of First and Third Worlds, donor and supplicant, leader and led, no longer fit.

Katie Willis 2015:

The evolution of the journal was clearly signalled in 2002 when the name changed from Third World Planning Review to International Development Planning Review. In a Viewpoint introducing this change, Bill, along with co-editors Katie Willis and Suet Ying Ho, explained that the change of name reflected not only the increasingly problematic use of the term 'Third World' to describe the peoples and places of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, but also the shifting approaches to development within an increasingly interconnected world

Renames

2002, Third World Planning Review renamed International Development Planning Review

The dominant discourse is about globalisation rather than a tripartite division of the world system, about the workings of 'the market' rather than the role of planning, about human rights and national sovereignty, about managing the global and local environment rather than merely generating income growth, about ethnic and religious self-assertion rather than western political, economic and cultural dominance, about governance rather than government.

January 2012, the Boston College Third World Law Journal renamed Boston College Journal of Law & Social Justice:

Although, in 1979, the term third world was cutting edge, today it never appears in the submissions we receive. ... since 1978 the term “third world” has acquired a pejorative connotation. When used colloquially, the term now suggests backward, primitive, or inefficient peoples or nations. The early editors of the TWLJ recognized that the field of third world studies “was not without controversy” and that “the very concept ‘third world’ invites debate.” Regrettably, with the new connotation attached to the term third world, the journal’s name has invited controversy and debate unintended by its founders—controversy that detracts from, rather than adds to, the journal’s scholarly bona fides.

In addition, the old title tended to obscure rather than clarify what type of scholarship we endeavor to publish, confusing even those for whom we expressly seek to provide a forum in the legal literature.11 In terms of scope, for example, nearly 70% of our content has concerned domestic issues, while 30% has been devoted to international matters.

[footnote] Many of us were interested to learn that third world is a term that derives from Cold War era politics. It originally described economically underdeveloped countries linked by common characteristics such as poverty, high birth rates, and economic dependence on more developed nations. Another characteristic they shared was their nonalignment with the Communist bloc or Capitalist nations of the West.

Gary Kline 2016:

This is the first issue of our journal to appear under its new name, the Journal of Global South Studies (JGSS). In turn, the new journal name conforms to the association name change – to the Association of Global South Studies (AGSS) – enacted following a vote of the members in the first few months of the year, 2016. The idea of a name change was initiated by the Executive Council at the annual conference meeting in Quito, Ecuador in November of 2015 in response to a growing chorus of voices expressing concern that our name needed to be updated. While the label made sense in the 1970s and 1980s, it increasingly acquired negative inferences and became a decidedly pejorative epithet in the minds of many people.

Naturally, the change of name was not universally popular; the Association name has included the term “Third World” since 1983. Some members did not want that to change. However, based on the discussion and open vote that ensued, a majority of members appeared to believe that the term had become anachronistic and that it carries too many negative connotations that are dissonant with our values as an association. Accordingly, their vote ratified the initiative of the leadership.

2019:

Specifically, the phrase “Third World to First” was popularized when the former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew published the second volume of his memoir with that title.

To read

• Worsley, Peter (1970). The Third World (2nd American ed.). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-90753-6. [especially Foreword and Back cover blurb
• Wolf‐Phillips, Leslie (January 1979). "Why third world?". Third World Quarterly. 1 (1): 105–114. doi:10.1080/01436597908419410.
• Worsley, Peter (April 1979). "How many worlds?". Third World Quarterly. 1 (2): 100–108. doi:10.1080/01436597908419426. ["almost cavalier lack of precision in my [1964] definition ... use of the term is now well nigh universal ... in so many different ways ... has to be understood historically"]
• Muni, S D (July 1979). "The third world: Concept and controversy". Third World Quarterly. 1 (3): 119–128. doi:10.1080/01436597908419446.
• Ajami, Fouad (December 1, 1980). "The Third World Challenge: The Fate of Nonalignment". Foreign Affairs. 59 (2). ISSN 0015-7120.
• Harris, Nigel (January 1987). "The end of the "third world"?". Habitat International. 11 (1): 119–132. doi:10.1016/0197-3975(87)90042-7.
• Wolf-Phillips, Leslie (1987). "Why 'Third World'?: Origin, Definition and Usage". Third World Quarterly. 9 (4): 1311–1327. ISSN 0143-6597. JSTOR 3991655. [summarises earlier discussions and dubious antedating term from 1952 to 1949]
• Escobar, Arturo (1988). "Power and Visibility: Development and the Invention and Management of the Third World". Cultural Anthropology. 3 (4): 428–443. ISSN 0886-7356. JSTOR 656487.
• Worsley, Peter (June 1, 1990). "Models of the Modern World-System". Theory, Culture & Society. 7: 83–95. doi:10.1177/026327690007002007. ["I have often been credited with inventing the Third World. In fact, the honour goes to the French demographer, Alfred Sauvy"]
• Keyfitz, Nathan (1992). "Le premier monde et le Tiers-Monde". Population. 47 (6): 1513–1531. doi:10.2307/1534085.
• Dickenson, John P.; Gould, Bill; Clarke, C. G.; Gould, W. T. S.; Mather, Sandra; Thomas-Hope, E.; Siddle, D. J.; Smith, C. T.; Prothero, R. M. (1996). "Introduction". A Geography of the Third World (2nd ed.). Psychology Press. pp. 2–11, 27–30. ISBN 978-0-415-10672-6.
• Fawcett, Louise; Sayigh, Yezid, eds. (1 April 1999). The Third World Beyond the Cold War: Continuity and Change. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-152250-5. [many chapters touch on the problematic nature of the term]
• Tomlinson, B.R. (April 2003). "What was the Third World?". Journal of Contemporary History. 38 (2): 307–321. doi:10.1177/0022009403038002135.
• Berger, Mark T (February 2004). "After the Third World? History, destiny and the fate of Third Worldism" (PDF). Third World Quarterly. 25 (1): 9–39. doi:10.1080/0143659042000185318. [see also Berger 2009] ["The idea of the Third World, which is usually traced to the late 1940s or early 1950s, was increasingly used to try and generate unity and support among an emergent group of nation-states whose governments were reluctant to take sides in the Cold War. ... With the end of the Cold War, some movements, governments and commentators have sought to reorient and revitalise the idea of a Third World, while others have argued that it has lost its relevance. This introductory article provides a critical overview of the history of Third Worldism, while clarifying both its constraints and its appeal."]
• Randall, Vicky (February 2004). "Using and abusing the concept of the Third World: geopolitics and the comparative political study of development and underdevelopment". Third World Quarterly. 25 (1): 41–53. doi:10.1080/0143659042000185327. ISSN 0143-6597. [I think this is about the utility of the concept under whatever name rather than the value of the particular name "Third World"; does have quote "Obviously the specific phrase ‘Third World’ is largely anachronistic in the wake of the collapse of what, in the original schema, was held to be the Second World"]
• Dufour, Françoise (2007). "Dire «le Sud»: quand l'autre catégorise le monde" (PDF). Autrepart. 41: 27–39. Retrieved 10 June 2022. ("La dénomination tiers monde apparaît dans la conjoncture de la conférence de Bandoeng (1955)" — does that mean participants used the term officially? Cited source is [ISBN 9782501028066 p. 20)
• Berger, Mark T., ed. (2009). After the Third World?. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-96830-6. [Chapter 1 is Berger 2004; are others similarly reprints?]
• Engerman, David C. (2011). "The Second World's Third World". Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. 12 (1): 183–211. ISSN 1538-5000. Project MUSE 411667. ["This view that Moscow directed all of its allies' actions in the Cold War is no longer sustainable."]
• Osondu, Iheanyi N. (8 December 2011). "The Third World: What is in a Name?". UJAH: Unizik Journal of Arts and Humanities. 12 (2): 1–25. doi:10.4314/ujah.v12i2.1. [not RS but cites some]
• Solarz, Marcin Wojciech (October 2012). "'Third World': the 60th anniversary of a concept that changed history". Third World Quarterly. 33 (9): 1561–1573. doi:10.1080/01436597.2012.720828.
• Christiansen, Samantha; Scarlett, Zachary A., eds. (2013). The Third World in the Global 1960s. Berghahn. ISBN 978-0-85745-573-4. [especially Introduction and Chapter 1]
• Solarz, Marcin Wojciech (11 July 2014). The language of Global Development : a misleading geography. New York, NY: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203077382. ISBN 9780203077382. [most detailed]
• Silver, Marc (4 January 2015). "If You Shouldn't Call It The Third World, What Should You Call It?". NPR. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
• Okihiro, Gary Y. (28 July 2016). "Third World Studies: Theorizing Liberation". Duke University Press. doi:10.1515/9780822373834. ISBN 9780822373834. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Parker, Jason C. (1 September 2016). Hearts, Minds, Voices: US Cold War Public Diplomacy and the Formation of the Third World. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-025185-7. pp. 8–10 and p.179 notes 8 and 9 credits Jean-Paul Sartre's 1961 Preface to Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, in French and in English translation, as helping publicize the term.
• Solarz, Marcin Wojciech (2020). "The Language of a Globalized World: Naming the Present Day and Its Worlds". Handbook of the Changing World Language Map. Springer International. pp. 2107–2119. ISBN 978-3-030-02438-3.
• Silver, Marc (8 January 2021). "Memo To People Of Earth: 'Third World' Is An Offensive Term!". NPR. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
• BRUNEL, Sylvie; FRIBOULET, Jean-Jacques. "TIERS MONDE". Encyclopædia Universalis (in French). Retrieved 10 June 2022. [talks about countries escaping the Third World, e.g. Asian dragons and tigers]

Journals

• Third World Quarterly still so called Third World Quarterly