Approximate Geographies: A Response to José Fernando Serrano Amaya

The following piece addresses some of the issues raised by Serrano Amaya about the usefulness of southern theory as a concept and as a call to arms. In a spirit of positive criticism, it addresses some of the ellipses inevitable in a project as ambitious as southern theory. It engages with the unequal nature of the exchange between northern and southern theorising. It also traces some of the lineage of the project and raises some issues about the ‘geographic’ distinctions between the global north and the global south. It briefly compares this to the east-west ‘axis’ as recognised and theorised by Edward Said. Lastly, it suggests a reading of southern theory which resists individualist models of theory production.