Naming Brazil's previously poor: “New middle class” as an economic, political, and experiential category

Abstract

The early years of the twenty-first century were historic for socioeconomic relations in Brazil. While long known for stark socioeconomic inequality, the nation became internationally celebrated for its economic growth and successful poverty-reduction initiatives, which together propelled some 35 million "previously poor" Brazilians into what became called a "new middle class." The apparent rise of this "new" class has generated contentious debate and a range of social science studies in Brazil; yet this literature is little known in the Anglophone academic world. While some have interpreted this demographic transformation as an expansion of the existing middle class, others have questioned the utility of income-or consumption-based criteria for the category "middle class." Drawing from ongoing research in working-class neighborhoods in three Brazilian cities (Recife, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo), this article reviews and engages these important debates, examines the extent to which Brazil's class structure has changed, and presents a conceptual framework for understanding experiences of socioeconomic mobility and class subjectivities among Brazil's "previously poor."Keywords Middle Class; Class Structure; Socioeconomic Mobility; BrazilThe middle class is necessarily an ill-defined entity. This does not reflect a lack of theoretical penetration but rather the character of reality.- Wacquant (1991, 57) In 2008, as Brazilians were becoming aware of their country's rising international profile and decreasing poverty, economist Marcelo Neri (2008, 43) announced the arrival of a "new middle class," with millions of once-poor people joining its ranks each year. Neri argued that with these shifts, Brazil had become a middle-class nation. Brazil is, of course, renowned for brutal inequality-so much so that "Brazilification" is often used as shorthand for widening inequality elsewhere. So the idea of a middle-class nation arrived as both a revelation and a controversy. Politicians and marketers took up the catchphrase "new middle class" even as critics assailed its validity. This debate continues today, even in the changed context of a severe economic downturn that began in 2013, the impeachment of Workers' Party (PT) president Dilma Rousseff in 2016, and the subsequent rollback of many of the PT social policies that supported poverty reduction during the party's years in office . The current crisis stands in contrast to the optimistic years preceding it, when Brazil's economic rise and the "new middle class"-dominated headlines. Our historical distance from those brighter times gives us, perhaps, enough remove to consider the implications of Brazilian debates on the "new middle class" and to evaluate their significance for anthropological theory and ethnography.We begin with an account of the profound socioeconomic transformations that took place in Brazil during the first decade of the twenty-first century. We then review how Marx, Weber, and Bourdieu have influenced the

“Our Brazil Has Become a Mess”: Nostalgic Narratives of Disorder and Disinterest as a “Once‐Rising Poor” Family from Recife, Brazil, Anticipates the 2018 Elections

“…The interactions I consider in this article are a thread of sorts and move through three ethnographic moments, each moment in some way addressing prospects for and impediments to ongoing mobility for the family—and for Brazil. While not presuming that Brazilians who experienced socioeconomic mobility during the PT years are homogeneous with respect to consumer practices, political attitudes, life aspirations, or class identifications (Klein, Mitchell and Junge ), I nonetheless contend that the Pereira family's story—their hopes and frustrations in times of growth and crisis, and the intergenerational dynamics shaping their conversations around key political events and periods—typifies patterns for many families from Brazil's classe popular . As such, this analysis contributes to a more nuanced account of the political affinities of Brazil's “once‐rising poor” during a moment of deepening economic precarity and political cynicism.…”

“…For more information about the broader study, see Klein, Mitchell, and Junge (2018). 6 For anthropological and historical studies of the lifestyles and identifies of Brazil's longstanding, affluent middle class, see Owensby (1999) and O'Dougherty (2002).…”

Porous infrastructures and the politics of upward mobility in Brazil's public housing

“…Under the administrations of the left-leaning Workers' Party (PT; 2003-16), Brazil's economy grew steadily alongside income redistribution. Wage increases, controlled inflation, credit expansion, and major economic and social policies paved the way for the uplifting of millions of low-income Brazilians into what was once heralded as the country's "new middle class" (Klein, Mitchell, and Junge 2018;Kopper and Damo 2018)-a process that experienced significant rollbacks in ensuing years as the economy plunged into recession.…”

Are we looking for a “guinea pig”? Difficulties in researching the “middle class” in Russia

“…However, even choosing locations within Moscow turns out to be complicated. While researchers such as Klein et al (2018) found their focus groups in specific neighbourhoods of big cities in Brazil, this turns out to be harder in Russia. When considering rent levels, there are of course some indicators -such as the proportion of rent to the distance to the city centre, nearest metro station, etc.…”

“…Or is it like the "guinea pig", named in a formalist way, but ignoring empirical evidence with regards to substance, although? In their examination of the Brazilian "new middle class", Klein et al (2018) bypass this analytical problem in an intriguingly artful way: the authors call their focus group the "previously poor" (ibid.) and thereby avoid any a priori assumptions.…”