Middle Classes in Africa
Changing Lives and Conceptual Challenges
Editors: Kroeker, Lena, O'Kane, David, Scharrer, Tabea (Eds.)
- Highlights the overlooked complexities in thinking about the ‘New African Middle Class’
- Explores what the concept of a ‘middle class’ should mean in an African context
- Argues there is no single African middle class, but a plurality of middle classes in Africa
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- About this book
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This volume challenges the concept of the ‘new African middle class’ with new theoretical and empirical insights into the changing lives in Sub-Saharan Africa. Diverse middle classes are on the rise, but models of class based on experiences from other regions of the world cannot be easily transferred to the African continent. Empirical contributions, drawn from a diverse range of contexts, address both African histories of class formation and the political roles of the continent’s middle classes, and also examine the important interdependencies that cut across inter-generational, urban-rural and class divides. This thought-provoking book argues emphatically for a revision of common notions of the 'middle class', and for the inclusion of insights 'from the South' into the global debate on class.
Middle Classes in Africa will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, as well as NGOs and policy makers with an interest in African societies. - About the authors
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Lena Kroeker is Research Fellow at the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, University of Bayreuth, Germany
David O’Kane is an Associate of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany
Tabea Scharrer is Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany - Reviews
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“The volume is well structured, offers nuanced questions, and engages with relevant challenges relating to current trends in social formations of African societies.” (Henning Melber, Africa Spectrum, Vol. 53 (1), 2018)
- Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Introduction: Africa’s Middle Classes in Critical Perspective
Pages 1-31
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Turning the Poor into Something more Inspiring: The Creation of the African Middle Class Controversy
Pages 35-55
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The Narrative of ‘the African Middle Class’ and Its Conceptual Limitations
Pages 57-79
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Anthropology and Class in Africa: Challenges of the Past and Present
Pages 81-105
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The Ghanaian Middle Class, Social Stratification, and Long-Term Dynamics of Upward and Downward Mobility of Lawyers and Teachers
Pages 109-134
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Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Middle Classes in Africa
- Book Subtitle
- Changing Lives and Conceptual Challenges
- Editors
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- Lena Kroeker
- David O'Kane
- Tabea Scharrer
- Series Title
- Frontiers of Globalization
- Copyright
- 2018
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Copyright Holder
- The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-319-62148-7
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-319-62148-7
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-3-319-62147-0
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-3-030-09674-8
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XIII, 376
- Number of Illustrations
- 4 b/w illustrations
- Topics
