Grand regional narratives

This commentary addresses four themes relevant to Alexander Murphy’s (2013) paper. First, with reference to the East Asian region, the commentary cautions against reductionist grand regional narratives, while lauding, clarifying and illuminating narratives. These, and second, can either be built from the ground up based on quite localised studies from which clarifying conceptual framings can be drawn or by generalising down. The former are seen as often more instructive than the latter. Third, the commentary makes a case for middle order generalisation that occupies an explanatory space between grand theorising/cross-country generalisation on the one hand and microassertions on the other. Finally, the commentary takes issue with Murphy’s critique of the term ‘Global South’, which, it is argued, he problematically misrepresents.