Global Divisions: The Spatial Imagination of Barbara Ward

Abstract The article examines the international thought of the British economist Barbara Ward (1914–1981) through her spatial imagination. It argues that Ward used categories such as East, West, North and South to discuss existing cleavages in world political and economic affairs. Through an examination of her political thought from the late 1930s to the late 1960s, the article shows how these spatial imaginaries were influenced by imperial and civilizational hierarchies. Moreover, the article argues that these divisions were, for her, a rhetorical tool to advance her vision of world unity, discussed through the notions of “spaceship earth” and “planetary community”. In her writings on economic growth and equality, Ward emphasized the importance of spirituality and ideas and identified the spiritual foundation of the proposed new planetary order with Christianity, a religious creed which supposedly provided a unifying universal morality. Ward’s work demonstrates both the promises and profound contradictions of planetary visions rooted in Western-centric moral frameworks. Her legacy invites critical reflection on how efforts to imagine planetary community can unwittingly reproduce the very inequalities they aim to overcome.