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Southern theory
Connell has developed a sociology of intellectuals that emphasises the collective character of intellectual labour, and the importance of its social context. Her 2007 book Southern Theory extended this to the global dynamics of knowledge production, critiquing the "Northern" bias of mainstream social science which is predominately produced in metropolitan universities. In doing so, she argues, metropolitan social theory fails to adequately explain social phenomena in the Southern experience.

She analysed examples of theoretical work deriving from the global South: including the work of Paulin Hountondji, Ali Shariati, Veena Das, Ashis Nandy and Raúl Prebisch. Connell has also examined Southern theories of neoliberalism and gender. Raewyn Connell's ''Southern Theory: The global dynamics of knowledge in social science (1st ed.). Routledge'', explains the sphere of knowledge has a global problem, this being the construction of knowledge about gender. The majority of information academically published about gender comes from universities that reside in the Northern hemisphere, and few countries contribute to establishing what we know about gender. At the London School of Economics and Political Science Connell gave a presentation on her book. She displayed a chart called, The League Table for Journals Published in Gender Studies. The graph depicts the journals published on gender and the origin of where they were published. They illustrate that nearly all information comes from the United States or Great Britain.

Connell credits feminist Marnia Lazreg on her work for accurately expanding on the issue of formation of knowledge on gender and the lack of understanding from the colonial northern bias

Lazreg wrote in her book The Eloquence of Silence, "Dealing with a subject with which people in American society are still largely unfamiliar threatens to turn me into a social translator of sorts, a bonafide native anthropologist, writing for others about others"(1). Southern theory and Lazreg explain that American and other northern societies fail to address gender perspectives from southern areas of the world.

Before Connell finalized ''Southern Theory: The global dynamics of knowledge in social science (1st ed.). Routledge'', an interview with a young Raewyn Connell provides insight to her ideas leading toward her renowned theory. Connell spoke with several feminists from the global south in the early stages of her theory. Attending various women's conferences, they discussed the issue of the United States and European powers controlling the politics of gender study. Connell continues to support her southern theory throughout the interview. She gave an extraordinary testimony regarding South American feminists and their effective ways of monitoring the achievement of gender equality in such depth that it surpasses the generic northern process of study.

Connell explained, "Latin American countries who develop ways of monitoring the achievement of gender equality not against some abstract international norms basically composed by a think tank in New York, but against locally generated commitments of national or even local governments, and it does produce a differentiated measure of the achievement of gender equality, which has political grip." Due to these findings originating in the south and being documented in Spanish, the excellent work being done by these feminists is not circulated through the global network of gender knowledge.

==== Unsettling the South ==== Raewyn Connell's ''Southern Theory: The global dynamics of knowledge in social science (1st ed.). Routledge'' has its critiques, Amy Piedalue and Susmita Rishi agree that southern theory is effective in centralizing the one-sided data-sphere of gender. However, the process of going back south to these colonized countries objectifies the women in these areas as a means to only use them as data.

"As such, southern theory must be charted not onto the colonial maps we've inherited, but rather through a process of countermapping that values the insights and theories that emerge from positions of struggle and marginality."

One main roadblock mainstreaming southern theory presents is that the general thought on post-colonial knowledge is that it is not universal, and the white European liberalistic knowledge on gender is the mainstream information used in academic study and forums