The new middle classes: consumption, development and sustainability

The emergence of a ‘middle class’ has long been considered a prerequisite and a sign of ‘development’. Currently, the center of gravity of the world economy is moving ‘south’ and ‘east’, for instance illustrated by how a significant number of countries in the South have experienced rapid economic growth over the last decades, moving from low-income to middle-income countries, and from aid recipients to donors. Deeply entwined in these processes is the rise of the ‘new middle class’, but it is not clear what this ‘rise’ entails, nor what it means for either development or sustainability. Indeed, much of the field of development studies seems to struggle to break with the myth of a consuming Global North and a producing Global South. This chapter sets out to explore the dynamics between growing middle classes, consumption and development processes in the Global South. In doing so, we first unpack the concept of the middle class, which tend to rest on oversimplified, overgeneralized and decontextualized assumptions about a widely heterogeneous group of people. We then use the paradox that middle classes are expected to simultaneously drive economic development through demand for goods and take the lead in reducing resource use and overconsumption as an entry point for discussing the development-consumption nexus. Based on this discussion, we propose a new research agenda on consumption, development and sustainability and outline what such an agenda could look like.