3rd world

[dannyday5821]

the third world? where the hell did that term come about? ive been thinking about it all day (well, all night seen as im on a night shift!). the most elaborate thing i could think of, which could atleast be plausable, is that its a clever political/psyhological term. to even concider a poorer country than us in "the 3rd world" is exactly like saying its in "the 5th dimension" somewhere out of reach, out of place, inaccessable, undesirable. clever! so wheres the 2nd world? whos the 1st world? how are these "worlds" defined? even though we are actually all "one world" this "3rd world" term is something thrown about all over the place, even at our schools. its acceptable. but to me, its just bizarre! any other thoughts people?

[SteveD]

"The term "third world" was coined by economist Alfred Sauvy in an article in the French magazine L'Observateur of August 14, 1952. It was a deliberate reference to the "Third Estate" of the French Revolution. Tiers monde means third world in French. The term gained widespread popularity during the Cold War when many poorer nations adopted the category to describe themselves as neither being aligned with NATO or the USSR, but instead composing a non-aligned "third world" (in this context, the term "First World" was generally understood to mean the United States and its allies in the Cold War, which would have made the East bloc the "Second World" by default; however, the latter term was seldom actually used)."

From here:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/General/Thir dWorld_def.html

[Theland]

I wish my night shifts were like yours! Browsing the net indeed! I had to do some work, more's the pity!

[VS Prasad]

1963, from Fr. tiers monde, formulated 1952 by A. Sauvy on model of the third estate (Fr. tiers �tat) of Revolutionary France. His first world is the West, and second world
is not the East bloc but the Soviet bloc.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Third +World

Originally the Third World was contrasted with the First World, the capitalist industrial nations, and the Second World, the industrialized Communist nations.

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/diction ary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861719773

There is another word Fourth World - the world's most poverty-stricken nations, esp. in Africa and Asia, marked by very low GNP per capita and great dependence upon foreign economic aid.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipd/A0447789.html

The term Fourth World refers to a "lost" world or sub-population subjected to social exclusion in global society. Sociologist Manuel Castells originally coined the term.

Fourth World follows the progression First World, Second World and Third World, which forms a distinct hierarchy of categories for nation-state status. However, unlike these categories Fourth World denotes nations without states.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_World

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/diction ary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861690725

The countries of th

[dannyday5821]

thanks for the answers and articles guys! concidering i did a-level geography and half a degree in social geography, you would have thought something like this would have been mentioned! clearly not! :P