Corruption and Anti-Corruption Upside Down: New Perspectives from the Global South. 1 - Introduction

The introductory chapter presents the main objectives of this edited volume, which are to enrich discussions and broaden conceptual horizons in corruption studies by presenting an in-depth analysis of corruption in the Global South, both from its own perspective and from a critical approach to more Northern-centric views. It also discusses how a multidisciplinary approach to corruption, by focusing on cases from the Global South, can be a source of empirical and theoretical knowledge to advance the decolonization of the good governance agenda more broadly. We understand decolonization in international corruption studies involving two broad tasks. The first is to disentangle the “international” from explicit and implicit Global North-dominated hierarchies and dichotomies that normalize the position of advanced economies as the benchmark for “the rest.” The second task is to illuminate and experiment with concepts, theories, perspectives, and methodologies that come from the Global South, including a systematic emphasis on gender. This introduction also presents the outline of the book, detailing what to expect from each chapter.