The Category of Nationality in the Global South

Abstract

This research aims to explain the importance of the category of nationality in the Global South, taking as its main reference Álvaro Vieira Pinto’s work Consciência e realidade nacional (vols. 1 and 2) (1907–1987). In it, categories such as naïve consciousness, critical consciousness, labor, project, and nationality are fundamental to understanding totality, with dialectics serving as the logical reasoning that guides their development. It is argued that, in the 20th and 21st centuries, the nation has been understood as a path to emancipation; however, the countries of the Global South have faced-and continue to face-barriers that prevent them from consolidating themselves as industrial powers, which negatively impacts both social relations of production and the quality of life of local populations. Accordingly, the study focused on four specific objectives: 1) to understand the intelligibility of categories and concepts; 2) to analyze the emergence of national consciousness; 3) to highlight the contradictions between nationalism and imperialism; and 4) to identify the reasons why the nation is conceived as a becoming.

KEYWORDS: Álvaro Vieira Pinto. Category. Nationality. Global South. Imperialism.