The Geography of Developing Areas

Book excerpt: This significant new textbook questions traditional conceptions of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean to provide a new understanding of the ‘Global South’, highlighting the rich diversity of regions that are usually only viewed in terms of their ‘problems’. Providing a positive but critical approach to a number of key issues affecting these important areas, the book: examines the ways in which the Global South is represented, and the values at play explores how the South is shaping, and being shaped by, global economic, political and cultural processes looks at peoples’ lives and identities assesses the possibilities and limitations of different ‘development’ strategies. A timely assessment of the way global processes are perceived from the Global South, the book is illustrated with over sixty colour photographs. It includes a full glossary of key terms, case studies from fieldwork conducted across a range of communities and nations, and introductions to the wider literature in this field. This is a wonderful new textbook for all students interested in Human Geography and Development Studies.