The world was classified during the Cold War into first, second, third and fourth worlds due to the then situation of countries within each group. But as much as significant changes have occurred since then, do these terms still hold? If not, how well have things changed and which countries are likely to have drifted into an upper or lower group?
please see
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Mark Berger, 2004 "After the Third World? History, Destiny and the Fate of the Third Wordism". Third World Quarterly, vol 25, no 1 pp9-39
Aijaz Ahmad, 1992. In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literature. LOndon: Verso. see particularly chapter 8 titled Three World Theories: End of a Debate
B.C. Smith, 2003, Understanding Third World Politics: Theories of political change and Development, Indiana University Press, 2nd Edition
David Hulme and Mark Turner, 1990, The Sociology of Development: Theories, Policies and Practices, London: Harvester
Thanks a lot Terfa for the suggested works, They are well noted and will be searched for
There are a lot of works on the concept of first, second... world. And most of them are right: they are highly problematic concepts -only starting with the fact that there is no second world left after the end of the Soviet Union. But, I must confess, that the alternatives, like "Global South" or peripheral countries doesn't convince me either. The problem is, that first, second... world is nowadays a part of the knowledge of everyday, so everyone understands what you are talking about. That is not the case with alternative concepts. At the same time, the alternative concepts are part of certain theoretical frameworks - they cannot be thought without political implications. As the first... world-frame is part of general knowledge, you do not necessarily have the same implications here (maybe clarifing in a footnote what you are talking about). So, I usually do stick to talking about first vs. third world.
Thanks a lot Philipp for the great opinion shared. Your opinion is well noted and very much appreciated
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