Author: James D. Sidaway.

The use of categories (such as developing world or Third World) to demarcate world regions on the basis of their levels of development is increasingly disputed. Moreover, in the last few years, references have proliferated to the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China), or sometimes BRICA (adding the Arab states of the Gulf), as hyperlinks to future-oriented investment in the world economy. These new labels rest on more than two decades of discourse about ?emerging markets? and are embodiments of and agents in the decomposition of the Third World as denoting a meaningful geopolitical and epistemological category. Where are and what then remains of the geography of development and the Third World? In addressing such questions, nuanced maps will be needed. This article sketches some alternatives.