Economies as 'Makers' or 'Users': Rectifying the Polysemic Quandary with a Dualist Taxonomy

Abstract

The Global South and Global North terminologies, in addition to several other designations, have been used to classify the socio-economic nature of countries for centuries; however, these historical naming conventions carry subtle confusions and tend to tint political discourse. This research explores the classificatory differences in international trade, politics, economic theory, and the media and discusses how such differences inform the narratives surrounding world production and consumption systems, as well as trade. The current evidence suggests that several descriptions of the world economies create misunderstandings and often mischaracterize less developed countries while positively projecting certain countries as more advanced. I argue that, rather than using the current descriptions, the terms “users” and “makers” be adopted to characterize the nature of production and consumption in modern economies. The new terminologies are less arbitrary as they can eliminate the existing semantic problems commonly found in the media and within economic theory and political discourse. The innovative and simpler user/maker dichotomy provides a less prejudiced designation of nations and provides a new research dimension for political economy and management theory.