Middle classes, Ltd.: Consumption and class identity during Brazil's inflation crisis.
Item
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Title
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Middle classes, Ltd.: Consumption and class identity during Brazil's inflation crisis.
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Identifier
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AAI9732956
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identifier
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9732956
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Creator
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O'Dougherty, Maureen.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Shirley Lindenbaum
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Date
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1997
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Anthropology, Cultural | Sociology, Social Structure and Development | History, Latin American
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Abstract
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The study is an effort to locate the Brazilian middle class historically and link its constitution to the acts and conceptualizations of the social agents concerned. The thesis analyzes the ways members of Sao Paulo's middle class redefined and represented their social positions during Brazil's more than decade-long (1981-1994) inflation crisis. It draws connections between the disruption of daily life and middle class practical and discursive tactics for class maintenance. It is argued that consumption and claims of cultural and moral superiority are fundamental to Brazilian middle class identity, whether rising or threatened with downward mobility, and that this means of constitution extends from the social to the economic and political.;Informants (residing in the capital city's south and west zones) defined class boundaries according to home and car ownership, and intra-class boundaries according to standards of enlightened, cultural consumption. The class grounding of these informants of recent immigration and upward mobility was further supported by claims of moral-ethical superiority (vis-a-vis nouveau riche and more powerful sectors) and ethnic/racial distinctions (vis-a-vis poor Brazilians). Analysis of informants' practical strategies for class maintenance showed specifically middle class means to offset income declines, including elaborate comparison shopping, investment in durable goods and avoidance of currency through banking. By relying on big businesses, these economizing methods contributed to the process of income transfer and concentration spurred by inflation. Family investments in education and international travel confirmed the importance of acquiring symbolic capital during a period of exacerbated social differentiation.;The media contributed to the association of the middle class with consumption and cultural/moral superiority. It represented middle class households as the target of the public crisis, alerted audiences to safe or dangerous investments and shopping methods, narrated horror stories of middle class decline and dramatized corruption scandals. Vehement statements by informants against corruption in the government, workplace and society registered resentment; stated positively, their "moral economy" supported small businesses nationally and competitive, global capitalism. The thesis concludes that during the crisis, the Brazilian middle class demonstrated an exaggeration, rather than a distortion of class identity.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
