Future Visions in Social Milieus Among the Middle-Class of Nairobi and Mombasa – Empirical Results and Theoretization of Future Concepts

In this paper I will focus on own research on future visions in the middle classes of Nairobi and Mombasa. These results will be the basis for a theoretical interpretation of these views on future. The various future visions among the different social groups (=milieus) in the middle classes of these two Kenyan cities point at certain social developments and can thus be interpreted as paradigmatic tendencies in the present society. While the social context of the milieus and their future visions might reflect global tendencies like forms of urbanisation they are at the same time higly local as they are adaptations to specific conditions - as the term 'glocalization' (Robertson) suggests.

Different social milieus in the middle classes of Nairobi and Mombasa have certain lifestyles and related future visions which reflect different tendencies of the contemporary social world. Kenya is a very interesting case study as the country has undergone considerable change and an increased integration into global structures in the last 20 years while it is still a developing country. Especially the differences in future orientations of East Africa´s dynamic economic center Nairobi and the old multicultural coastal town Mombasa can reveal a variety of future references. Thus I will demonstrate by paradigmatic examples how future orientations of milieus in urban Kenya reflect specific social developments and how they can contribute to the theoretical interpretation of sociological future concepts. This way the paper even tries to (re)construct social theory from a specific perspective of the Global South.