Terms such as "Third World," "developing countries" and "Global South" are ubiquitous in the discipline of development studies, but they are often poorly defined, ideologically weighted and misleading.

Taking an intellectual history approach, this book examines the most commonly used spatial terms in the language of development, tracing their origins, meanings, evolution and processes of popularisation and demonstrating how geographical, political and economic concepts were used or misused in creating these terms. The book looks at the origins and the changing nature of fundamental...

This book provides a comprehensive spatial guide to the globalized world of the 21^st century, focusing on nine timely global themes as well as insights and ideas for worlds of the future: demographic trends in the contemporary world and migration; problems of development; religion; war, conflict and terrorism; challenges in transportation; media and the world community; the world community and diseases; cities, and the endangered Earth. This book will be of interest to those studying geography, human-environment relations, politics, globalization studies and international...