The emergent middle class in contemporary South Africa: Examining and comparing rival approaches

Burger, Ronelle; Steenekamp, Cindy; Berg, Servaas van der; Zoch, Asmus

doi:10.1080/0376835x.2014.975336

Cited by 41 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…However, more than this, we suggest that the middle class represents a discursively-constructed category that itself is part of the process of mobilizing the ethical consumer. objective and subjective notions of class (Burger et al, 2015), South Africa's middle classes are often understood as "the consumer class[es]" (Kharas, 2010: 5). Despite representing a relatively small fraction of the population (see below), the South African middle classes are diverse and include a large proportion of white South Africans (both affluent and very affluent), the so-called 'Black Diamonds' or very-affluent black individuals, and an emerging group of black professionals and white-collar employees in both the public and private sectors.…”

Section: South Africa's Middle Class Consumersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobilizing the ethical consumer in South Africa

2015

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Additional information:Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. by the discursive construction of a growing South African 'middle class' is also acknowledged as part of the process of encouraging ethical consumption on the part of these actors. In conclusion, it is suggested that understanding ethical consumption in South Africa, as elsewhere, requires sensitivity to both transnational networks of globalizing responsibility and localized expressions of ethical consumption.

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Section: South Africa's Middle Class Consumersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobilizing the ethical consumer in South Africa

2015

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“…Apart from earlier sociological work by Brandel-Syrier (1971), Mayer (1977) and Nyquist (1983), and the more recent work by Telzak (2014), Adato et al (2006), Nieftagodien & Gaule (2012), and Phadi & Manda (2010, most of the recent literature is quantitative in approach (see Burger et al, 2014). While there is a substantial literature on migration and movement of people across southern Africa, Lee's (2009) recent book African Women and Apartheid: Migration and Settlement in Urban South Africa starts addressing the issue of social mobility and metaphor more directly.…”

Section: Method Mobility and Metaphormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Seekings (2009) and Southall (2004) have discussed how the two dominant and contrasting approaches to class -neoMarxist and neo-Weberian -have shaped social science discourse in South Africa (see also Burger et al, 2014). Seekings' (2009) explanation for the dominance of neo-Marxist approaches in the social science literature on South Africa since the 1970s is especially important, as is his call for scholars to familiarise themselves with an earlier 'Weberian moment in South African social science' and to build on an existing 'history of non-Marxist analysis of stratification in South Africa ' (2009:881).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Growing up’ and ‘moving up’: Metaphors that legitimise upward social mobility in Soweto

Krige

2014

Development Southern Africa

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A growing body of research on the middle classes in South Africa is concerned with patters of consumption while fewer scholars engage with the inequality that accompanies greater social differentiation. Little existing research addresses the ways in which new members of the black middle class legitimise newfound wealth and social mobility. Taking inspiration from anthropologists who have documented societal responses to changing configurations of wealth and inequality elsewhere in Africa, I employ the life-history method to ask how one Sowetan man, who selfidentifies as being black and middle class, frames his own social mobility. I find that spatial metaphors play an important role in legitimising social mobility. I also find that one response to accusations of materialism and conspicuous consumption levelled against the urban black middle class is a renewal of certain cultural practices in which private wealth can legitimately be converted into social wealth.

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“…This could mean that the ethnoracial autonomous mode of experience is more popular in the United States, as there is potentially a greater presence of social and cultural spaces free from white influence. Similarly, South Africa's collective black middle-class emerged at a similar time to Britain's (Burger et al 2015). However, South Africa is a black-majority country in comparison to white-majority Britain, so it could be that the class-minded mode of experience is more dominant in South Africa where there are greater attempts to symbolically separate the black middle-and lower-classes.…”

Section: Towards a Clearer Mosaicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Positionings of the black middle-classes: understanding identity construction beyond strategic assimilation

Meghji

2016

Ethnic and Racial Studies

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This paper explores the identities of Britain's black middle-classes. Drawing upon interviews with seventy-two participants, I theorize a 'triangle of identity'. This triangle emphasizes how black middle-class identities are constructed within the dynamics of three poles. Firstly, there is the class-minded pole whereby class comes to the fore as a conceptual scheme; secondly, there is the ethnoracial autonomous pole whereby 'race' is central to one's identity and whiteness is actively resisted; and lastly there is the strategic assimilation pole, where one continually moves between classed and racialized spheres of action. This tripartite approach to identity builds upon previous research by further exploring the social, cultural and phenomenological distinctions within Britain's black middle-classes.

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The emergent middle class in contemporary South Africa: Examining and comparing rival approaches

Cited by 41 publications

References 11 publications

Mobilizing the ethical consumer in South Africa

Mobilizing the ethical consumer in South Africa

‘Growing up’ and ‘moving up’: Metaphors that legitimise upward social mobility in Soweto

Positionings of the black middle-classes: understanding identity construction beyond strategic assimilation

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