The All-Meaning Middle and the Alchemy of Class

Abstract

The last several years have been particularly active ones in the on-again off-again discussion among economists and sociologists, primarily, about the size of the global middle class, its impact on world markets, and its likely contribution to entrepreneurial innovation and global prospects of democracy. One need only survey the production of OECD and World Bank working papers and Economist and Foreign Policy articles published over the last three to five years to see that something of note is happening.