ABSTRACT
Southern theory draws critical attention to periphery–centre relations, with a focus on how knowledge takes shape amid power dynamics that are marked by authority, exclusion and inclusion, hegemony and appropriation. It emphasizes the unequal relations between intellectuals and institutions in the North Atlantic, a hegemonic centre, and the world periphery – those places and spaces in which ways of thinking are often discredited, subordinated, ignored or granted no intellectual authority. Accordingly, Southern theory, as an intellectual project, questions and challenges the privileging of the North Atlantic within the realm of knowledge production. In Southern Theory, Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell contends that Northern theory often makes universal claims, even though the global periphery generates significant and distinct social theories. Connell argues that theory at the margins of the social sciences deserves serious and unprejudiced engagement because it offers important insight overlooked by mainstream social science.
