African middle classness, politics and protest : on the context of this issue

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dc.contributor.author Daniel, Antje
dc.contributor.author Melber, Henning
dc.contributor.author Stoll, Florian
dc.date.accessioned 2023-05-15T08:10:05Z
dc.date.issued 2023
dc.description.abstract Middle classes in the Global South have become topical. They were considered mainly by economists in development-oriented institutions and praised as a factor contributing to economic development and democratic forces. We recapitulate some of the trends and remind the reader of earlier debates. We take stock of the variety of contributions and point to the efforts to have a more nuanced look at the composition and orientations of ‘middle classes’ and their political engagements. We maintain that the initial economistic reduction, measuring monetary income as the main criteria for middle classness, is insufficient and offers no reliable set of indicators as to the social and political as well as cultural positioning of members of such income groups. An appropriate analysis of the nature and role of African middle classes must consider four aspects: the specific class formations of African societies; the link between socioeconomic stratification and sociopolitical orientations; the limited knowledge and theorisation of African societies; and the need to apply a multidimensional and new research including diverse sociocultural elements and their contextual embeddedness. We argue that an intersectional lens can break up the classical competition of the one-dimensional paradigms and suggest decolonising research on protest and middle classes by integrating a perspective and theorisation from Africa. More attention should be paid to analytical concepts such as intersectionality and social milieu for the understanding of African societies and their potential for transformation through protest. This requires overcoming stereotypical and truncated assumptions about the middle classes. en_US
dc.description.department Political Sciences en_US
dc.description.embargo 2024-10-26
dc.description.librarian hj2023 en_US
dc.description.uri http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjca20 en_US
dc.identifier.citation Antje Daniel, Henning Melber & Florian Stoll (2023) African middle classness, politics and protest: on the context of this issue, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 41:1, 1-12, DOI: 10.1080/02589001.2023.2199248. en_US
dc.identifier.issn 0258-9001 (print)
dc.identifier.issn 1469-9397 (online)
dc.identifier.other 10.1080/02589001.2023.2199248
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/90675
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Routledge en_US
dc.rights © 2023 The Institute of Social and Economic Research. This is an electronic version of an article published in Journal of Contemporary African Studies, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 1-12, 2023, doi : 10.1080/02589001.2023.2199248. Journal of Contemporary African Studies is available online at : http://www.tandfonline.comloi/cjca20. en_US
dc.subject Middle classes en_US
dc.subject Protests en_US
dc.subject Politics en_US
dc.subject Africa en_US
dc.title African middle classness, politics and protest : on the context of this issue en_US
dc.type Postprint Article en_US


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