300212 South Asian Middle Class in Postcolonial Contexts: Family, Mobility, Inequality (S) (SoSe 2017)

‘Middle class’ as a ‘sociocultural phenomenon’ has only recently begun to gain attention amongst social anthropologists. There are several reasons for the neglect of this topic. Firstly, anthropologists’ ‘traditional’ interest aligned itself with disadvantaged, underprivileged, or ‘subaltern’ subjects, who occupy positions that often sets them vis á vis as more powerful social actors. Secondly, anthropologists have, from the very beginning, expressed scepticism towards the heuristic usefulness of the term ‘class’, due to its extensive heterogeneity, cultural specificity and historical contingency. Many have argued that socio-economic hierarchy can be studied by paying attention to status and habitus, or structurally defined differences like gender, race, religion and ethnicity, thereby circumventing the term ‘class’. Class is regarded as a Western concept and is considered less useful in studying social order especially in a (post)colonial context. Finally, even anthropologists who were deeply influenced by the Marxist school neglected the study of ‘middle class’ following thereby Marx’ conviction. Marx was certain that middle classes are transient social formations and with the passing of time, they would disappear: either by the fact that they will rise up in the rank of the bourgeoisie or by the fact that they will be absorbed in the proletariat.
However, amidst contemporary global, political and economic transformations, middle classes, instead of disappearing, have gained importance in some geographical contexts, including South Asia. Along with the “older” petit bourgeoisie under the neoliberal influence, “new” middle classes have emerged. Whilst the former commonly secured their social position through education, the latter are characterised by new forms of lifestyle such as consumption, particular civic engagements, career as well as marital choices. Many anthropologists today acknowledge that by studying middle classness, one gains insights not only into particular ways and spaces of living, subjectivities, emotionality (aspirations as well as anxieties), practices of mobility and exploitation, but also into contemporary global-local transformations that are facilitated by neoliberal politics, in which the state still plays a pivotal role. Yet, a great number of anthropological studies concentrate on middle class formation from the perspective of individuals, thereby neglecting the fact that securing or attaining such sociocultural positions is often a collective effort in which families and family relations are essential. In the framework of this seminar, we will explore this topic further by simultaneously testing and tracing the heuristic usefulness of the concept of ‘middle class’ in the quotidian settings of South Asian everyday life. We will do this by linking middle classness to another very important social formation: the family.