Southern theory and how it aids in engaging southern youth

Abstract

Southern theory is as an evolving body of thought that places the Global South, understood as a relational concept and category, at the center of theoretical and methodological debates in knowledge production. It challenges the provinciality of what is traditionally understood as theory by mobilizing the South, frequently undertheorized, as an important epistemological resource in order to explain and transform the geopolitical context of theory production. In marshalling otherwise marginalized experiences and knowledges and presenting them as legitimate intellectual resources, Southern knowledges are recognized, repositioned, and centered. Southern theory thus takes the form of an epistemic and political project. In this analysis, these themes are unpacked by employing Southern theory as a transnational lens with which intersecting issues of youth, gender, and disability can be engaged.