From Great Divergence debates to South–South divergence: Expanding comparative frameworks in global economic history
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65967/istoriya.v7i4.112Keywords:
colonialism, economic development, global economic history, Great Divergence, industrialization, South–South DivergenceAbstract
Over the last quarter-century, the Great Divergence has dominated debates in economic history. This review article maps out fresh directions for comparative work in global economic history. It contends that a focus on South–South Divergence is a timely and coherent next step in the Great Divergence research program. Asia’s economic resurgence not only halted a long period of expanding worldwide income inequality, it also initiated a new pattern of unequal growth within the global south. Understanding the historical character, drivers, and roots of this shift matters increasingly as the global south gains greater demographic significance and economic influence. Comparisons among southern economies can also challenge the field’s continuing reliance on western-centered and North–South frameworks. By shifting the comparative lens, South–South analysis encourages the construction of alternative concepts and explanations that are not confined to mainstream templates developed in development economics and political science. Such renewed approaches, the article argues, must confront what shapes the possibilities and limits of “late” development today. In particular, they need to account for a fourfold set of pressures: persistent technology disparities, restricted room for independent state action, intensified global competitive forces, and the fast narrowing of land and resource frontiers.
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