Fourth World

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Fourth World (disambiguation).
 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

The term Fourth World in academia sometimes refers to a sub-population subjected to social exclusion in global society, but since the 1974 publication of The Fourth World: An Indian Reality by George Manuel, Chief of the National Indian Brotherhood/Assembly of First Nations, Fourth World has come to be known as a synonym for stateless and notably impoverished or marginalized nations.[1] Since 1979, think tanks like the Center for World Indigenous Studies have made extensive use of the term in defining the rapidly evolving relationships between ancient nations and modern states.[2] With the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, communications and organizing amongst Fourth World peoples has accelerated in the form of international treaties between aboriginal nations for the purposes of trade, travel, and security.[3]

The internationally renowned sociologist Manuel Castells, of the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication, has made extensive use of the term in such publications as the International Journal of Communication.

Fourth World follows the progression First World, Second World and Third World, which forms a distinct hierarchy of categories for nation-state status. However, unlike these categories, Fourth World denotes nations without states. This sense emphasizes the non-recognition or exclusion of often ethnically or religiously defined groups from the political and economic world system. Examples of Fourth World nations include the Roma worldwide, pre-WWI Ashkenazi in the region of the Pale of Settlement, Kurds and Palestinians in the Middle East, many Native American/First Nations groups throughout the Americas and many indigenous Africans and Asians.

See also: Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.cwis.org/fwdp/International/statebrk.txt
  2. ^ http://www.cwis.org/fwdp/International/moscow93.txt
  3. ^ United League of Indigenous Nations formed : ICT [2007/08/10]

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Economic classification of countries
Developed country · Developing country · Least developed country · High income country · Newly industrialized country · Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
Worlds Theory
First World · Second World · Third World · Fourth World
Lists of countries