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Spatializing distinction in cities of the global south: Volatile terrains of morality and citizenship

Political Power and Social Theory

ISBN: 978-0-85724-325-6, eISBN: 978-0-85724-326-3

Publication date: 23 December 2010

Abstract

Davis's tentative postulation about the subjecthood of the new middle class is appropriate, as there is a wide variety of definitions given to this group across different national and local contexts. She underlines the importance of rejecting “essentialist arguments about so-called middle class culture and its role in economic development, seeking instead to identify differences among the middle classes (emphasis in original),” further asserting that there is not “some essential cultural or political disposition about class politics or class discourses associated with middle ‘classness.’” But beyond attempting to enumerate exactly who counts as middle class in each setting, and determining whether they are best described as “old” or “new” in their character as political subjects, we must recognize that there are indeed social and cultural attributes ascribed to the middle class that are also a matter of contention, and that there is no single proprietor of these features. In other words, middleclassness is a contested ensemble of characteristics, endowed with variable political valences, that different groups seek to own, manipulate, and deploy to a range of ends.

Citation

Centner, R. (2010), "Spatializing distinction in cities of the global south: Volatile terrains of morality and citizenship", Go, J. (Ed.) Political Power and Social Theory (Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 281-298. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-8719(2010)0000021016

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited