The Elusive New Middle Class in Brazil
AUTOR(ES)
Kerstenetzky, Celia Lessa, Uchôa, Christiane, Silva, Nelson do Valle
FONTE
Bras. Political Sci. Rev.
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO
2015-12
RESUMO
Against the background of the generalized reduction of poverty in the world, and particularly in Brazil, this article intends to gauge the socio-economic profile of Brazilian households that emerged from poverty and have been identified as integrating a "new middle class". Using indicators of standards of living from the 2008-2009 Survey on Family Budgets (POF/IBGE), we found out that, in contrast to what has been assumed on the basis of average income criteria, this social stratum is markedly heterogeneous, most of it being similar in their consumption patterns to the economically vulnerable or outright poor strata. So, we conclude that, from a sociological perspective that demands additional conditions besides income levels to identify social classes, it is a category mistake to call this social stratum a new middle class. We conjecture that this may be consequential in terms of policy priorities and choices.
Documentos Relacionados
- Global booms and busts: how is Brazil's middle class faring?
- Brazilian new middle class stratagem: dialectics of consumption and renewal of the overexploitation of labor
- Yeast weighs in on the elusive spindle matrix: New filaments in the nucleus
- New Screen Identifies Elusive MicroRNA Targets
- A new species of Scinax Wagler, 1830 (Anura: Hylidae) from the middle Amazon river basin, Brazil