What is the ‘South’ in the Southern City? An Epilogue

What is the South is a question hovering in many chapters of this book. In this epilogue, we want to follow up on this issue, which seems to us particularly timely and pressing considering the new meanings acquired by the reference to, or invocation of the “Global South” in the current conjuncture of war and global turmoil. We start by quickly addressing the topic of the “Global South,” and we then turn to Gramsci as well as to some relevant interpretations of his writings on the “Southern question” to problematize the very meaning of the South. In the second part of the essay, we reframe the notion of “Southern city” to position it within current debates on cities and urbanisation processes.