273.4 Who is the new middle class in Brazil?

Thursday, August 2, 2012: 11:30 AM
Faculty of Economics, TBA
Hebe OLIVEIRA , Uerj, Brazil
In Brazil, it has been noticed the emergence of a new middle class as one of the most significant social phenomena of the recent years. Surveys estimate that in the last decade about 40 million people  moved forward and  now have a household income between R$1.200 and R$ 5.174, which is considered Class C in Brazil and it has been called the new middle class.
In this sense, it has proliferated discourses about this new middle class, which has been associated with this increase in income  and new  consumption possibilities. Media and government refer insistently to this new middle class to demonstrate social mobility in the country and how the assumed development pattern has reached good results.
However, aspects related to quality of life, such as access to education, housing, transportation, health care and basic services (electricity, water and sanitation) has not been incorporated into the debate on social mobility. Therefore, the perspective of new middle class that has been released does not include social precariousness in which people with this particular income live.
In this sense, my research is the discourse analysis of TV and printed media reports about how are being elaborated discourses on the new middle class. In my work, I discuss how the new middle class has been related to the notion of social mobility through an increase in income, it means, through which categories it’s being established the relationship between income, consumption and social mobility. Another  aspect is the relationship between the new middle class and the traditional middle class. In spite of it refers to the traditional one, the new middle class has constantly been differentiated to the former middle class in the media reports, in a way that one of the recurring questions is who is’ and ‘what think this new middle class’.