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The New Middle Classes

Globalizing Lifestyles, Consumerism and Environmental Concern

  • Book
  • © 2009

Overview

Editors:
  1. Lars Meier
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  2. Hellmuth Lange
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  • Provides empirical evidence of both commonalities and differences among the new middle classes of different countries
  • Considers evidence of both consumerism and environmental concern
  • Proffers conclusions in view of modernization theory and a better understanding of what globalization means in regard to lifestyles and their impact on resource consumption

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
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  2. Modernities, Globalization and Consumption

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 27-27
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    2. Who are the New Middle Classes and why are they Given so Much Public Attention?

      • Hellmuth Lange, Lars Meier
      Pages 1-26

    3. Convergence and Divergence in Societal Modernization: Global trends, Regional Variations, and Some Implications for Sustainability

      • Volker H. Schmidt
      Pages 29-47

    4. Consumerist Lifestyles in the Context of Globalization: Investigating Scenarios of Homogenization, Diversification and Hybridization

      • Katina Kuhn
      Pages 49-64

    5. Who are the Globalizers? The Role of Education and Educational Elites

      • Steffen Mau
      Pages 65-79

    6. Provider Strategies and the Greening of Consumption Practices: Exploring the Role of Companies in Sustainable Consumption

      • G. Spaargaren, C. S. A. Kris van Koppen
      Pages 81-100

    7. From Small Objects to Cars: Consumption Expansion in East Asia

      • Beng Huat Chua
      Pages 101-115
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About this book

With respect to the developing and threshold economies, it is no longer the poor who are the only focus of media attention. Today, the new middle classes are about to take centre stage, too. With their lifestyles and attitudes, the new middle classes are considered to be both the products as well as the promoters of globalization. They are a highly heterogeneousgroup in socio-economicterms as well as in habits 1 and preferences, including their societal role as consumers and citizens. The ?rst wave of scholarly and political attention can be traced back to the mid-nineties. The focal point was surprise and unease about indubitable symptoms of consumerism which, until then had been seen as a characteristic of the richest western societies. However, since the nineties, consumerism has run rampant in - velopingcountriestoo.Thishasparticularlybeennotedwithrespecttotheemerging middle classes in South East Asia. The “will to consume seemed inexhaustible, and appetites insatiable. This rage to consume [...] was both celebrated and feared by political leadersand other social/moralgatekeepers,who beganto condemnthe p- cess as ‘Westernization’ and even ‘westoxi?cation”’ (Chua 2000: xii). Ever since, the debate about the lifestyles of the new middle classes and their role in society has gained momentum.

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