17. Alternative Knowledge on the Global South

The author addresses a criticism of the theoretical legacy on the concept of development. The history of development in countries of the South provides lessons to be learned in this quest for cognitive alternatives in the context of globalization. It is a reflection on the process of construction of a concept dealing with a duality differentiating developed societies from underdeveloped ones. Development therefore was constructed around the paradigm of modernization and the cash up, that has dominated debates and approaches on constraints facing most of the countries in the world, even within some international organizations dealing with the issue of development. However, the world is no longer bipolarized between modern and traditional societies or between a developed West and an underdeveloped South. Instead, it is multipolar as illustrated by the differentiated trajectories of countries, which has allowed for alternative forms of development, in a context where globalization that has created other types of disparities between countries. Advocates of globalization praise its benefits and opportunities for the integration of developing countries into the world economy, but this globalization has created new inequalities between North and South countries, and has sometimes split regions within the same country be it in the South or the North. This contribution is a theoretical reflection on development in order to identify new challenges facing the Global South in a globalized world, while focusing on the role that education, knowledge, and technological mastery have played in certain development models, in order to create alternative knowledge and pathways that can benefit the Global South.