Majority World

The Bangladeshi photojournalist Shahidul Alam coined "Majority World" in the early 1990s. He wished to highlight the discrepancy when compared to Western countries, especially those associated with the G8, which represented a tiny minority of the world's population but exercised significant power over the rest of humanity. It sought to overcome the "West's rhetoric of democracy" focusing less on what a community has as opposed to what it lacks.{{cite journal |last1=Alam |first1=Shahidul |title=Majority World: Challenging the West's Rhetoric of Democracy |journal=Amerasia Journal |date=January 2008 |volume=34 |issue=1 |page=89 |doi=10.17953/amer.34.1.l3176027k4q614v5}}{{cite journal |last1=Leong |first1=Russell C. |title=Majority World: New Veterans of Globalization |journal=Amerasia Journal |date=January 2008 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=vii–viii |doi=10.17953/amer.34.1.w73j740264225r95}}

The term was coined as an alternative to "Third World" or "Developing World," terms which reinforced stereotypes about poor communities and hide their histories of oppression and exploitation. It challenges implicit hierarchies, between the "first" and the "third," or the need to be "developing."{{cite web |last1=Shafaieh |first1=Charles |title=Shahidul Alam on the Majority World |url=https://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/articles/shahidul-alam-on-the-majority-world/ |website=Harvard Design Magazine |access-date=20 April 2025}}{{cite web |last1=Lawrence |first1=Salmah Eva-Lina |title=The Majority World – what's in a phrase? |url=https://www.philanthropy.org.au/news-and-stories/the-majority-world-whats-in-a-phrase/ |website=Philanthropy Australia |access-date=20 April 2025}} It is also less arbitrary than "Global South," given that these countries are not always geographically located in the south.{{cite news |last1=Silver |first1=Marc |title=If You Shouldn't Call It The Third World, What Should You Call It? |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/01/04/372684438/if-you-shouldnt-call-it-the-third-world-what-should-you-call-it |access-date=20 April 2025 |work=NPR |date=4 January 2015 |language=en}}

In 2003, the term "Global majority" was coined as a way to speak of those of Majority World heritage living in Western contexts.{{cite book |last1=Campbell-Stephens |first1=Rosemary M. |title=Educational Leadership and the Global Majority: Decolonising Narratives |date=2021 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-88282-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UYNSEAAAQBAJ |language=en |pages=4–6}} This concept began to gain momentum in the 2020s in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests, in contrast to racialized terms "ethnic minority," "Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic" in the United Kingdom,{{cite news |last1=McGuinness |first1=Alan |title=Boris Johnson told to 'scrap use of BAME label' as critics brand it 'unhelpful and redundant' |url=https://news.sky.com/story/boris-johnson-told-to-scrap-use-of-bame-label-as-critics-brand-it-unhelpful-and-redundant-12259929 |work=Sky News |date=29 March 2021 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Sharman |first1=Laura |title=Abandon redundant BAME label, race commission tells Downing St |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/abandon-redundant-bame-label-race-commission-tells-downing-st-zxt7zvmms |work=The Times |date=29 March 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210711091957/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/abandon-redundant-bame-label-race-commission-tells-downing-st-zxt7zvmms |archive-date=11 July 2021 |url-status=live |language=en}} and "person of color" in the United States.{{cite web |last1=Lim |first1=Daniel |title=I'm Embracing the Term 'People of the Global Majority' |url=https://regenerative.medium.com/im-embracing-the-term-people-of-the-global-majority-abd1c1251241 |website=Medium |language=en |date=11 May 2020}}

Shahidul Alam later established an organization named "Majority World" to bring to the foreground photographers from the Majority World.{{cite web |title=About Us |url=https://majorityworld.com/about.php |website=Majority World |access-date=21 April 2025}} The term has been used by academic journals like Amerasia Journal and The BMJ,{{cite journal | doi=10.17953/amer.34.1.ju352p1535103t4n | title="Majority World" Movements | journal=Amerasia Journal | date=2008 | volume=34 | page=1 }}{{cite journal |last1=Khan |first1=Themrise |last2=Abimbola |first2=Seye |last3=Kyobutungi |first3=Catherine |last4=Pai |first4=Madhukar |title=How we classify countries and people—and why it matters |journal=BMJ Global Health |date=June 2022 |volume=7 |issue=6 |pages=e009704 |doi=10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009704|pmid=35672117 |pmc=9185389 }} and media outlets like NPR{{cite web |last1=Silver |first1=Marc |title=If You Shouldn't Call It The Third World, What Should You Call It? |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/01/04/372684438/if-you-shouldnt-call-it-the-third-world-what-should-you-call-it |website=NPR |language=en |date=4 January 2015}} The term has also been readily used within Christianity, given the increasing recognition that the majority of the world's Christians are today found in the Majority World.{{cite web |title=What is the Majority World? |url=https://lausanne.org/video/what-is-majority-world |website=Lausanne Movement |access-date=21 April 2025}}

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• Global majority

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Category:Global South

Category:Majority–minority relations

Category:Linguistic controversies

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