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I have been an elementary and secondary school teacher and administrator. Currently, I am a faculty member in the Faculty of Education at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. My M.Ed. and Ph.D. had a focus on the educational and linguistic experiences of children who moved from other countries to Canada.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Re-thinking "global south" and "global north": Hans Rosling stirs the imagination



Hans Rosling is a Swedish doctor and academic who "mobilizes" statistics! In other words, he makes meaning of statistics for broad audiences and helps data tell a story. More information on his software can be found at: http://www.gapminder.org/

Here is an amazing TED Talk he did that can really help us understand some of the ways in which the global north and the global south are changing in relationship to development. The talk also challenges how we conceive and categorize terms such as global south, global north, less developed, etc:

Click here to watch the TED Talk: Hans Rosling

After watching the TED Talk, do you think there are any significant differences between the more developed north and the less developed south? Do you think we need to abandon broad constructs such as "global south" and "global north"? Are there aspects of economic and social progress that Rosling does not address?

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