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The New Middle Classes Globalizing Lifestyles, Consumerism and Environmental Concern

:	Lars Meier, Hellmuth Lange
:	Hellmuth Lange, Lars Meier
:	The New Middle Classes Globalizing Lifestyles, Consumerism and Environmental Concern
:	Springer-Verlag
:	9781402099380
:	1
:	CHF 85.50
:

:	Sozialwissenschaften allgemein
:	English

:	309
:	Wasserzeichen/DRM
:	PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
:	PDF

With respect to the developing and threshold economies, it is no longer the poor who are the only focus of media attention. Today, the new middle classes are about to take centre stage, too. With their lifestyles and attitudes, the new middle classes are considered to be both the products as well as the promoters of globalization. They are a highly heterogeneousgroup in socio-economicterms as well as in habits 1 and preferences, including their societal role as consumers and citizens. The ?rst wave of scholarly and political attention can be traced back to the mid-nineties. The focal point was surprise and unease about indubitable symptoms of consumerism which, until then had been seen as a characteristic of the richest western societies. However, since the nineties, consumerism has run rampant in - velopingcountriestoo.Thishasp rticularlybeennotedwithrespec totheemerging middle classes in South East Asia. The 'will to consume seemed inexhaustible, and appetites insatiable. This rage to consume [...] was both celebrated and feared by political leadersand other social/moralgatekeepers,who beganto condemnthe p- cess as 'Westernization' and even 'westoxi?cation'' (Chua 2000: xii). Ever since, the debate about the lifestyles of the new middle classes and their role in society has gained momentum.

	Preface	5
	Acknowledgements	7
	Contents	8
	List of Figures	10
	List of Tables	12
	About the Authors	13
	1 Who are the New Middle Classes and why are they Given so Much Public Attention?	17
	1.1 The New Middle Classes A Contested Issue in Public Debate	17
	1.2 Who are the New Middle Classes?	22
	1.2.1 The New Middle Classes -- A Classical Issue	22
	1.2.2 The Emerging New Middle Classes in Developing Countries	24
	1.2.3 How to Assess Empirically Size and Structure of the New Middle Classes?	26
	1.3 The New Middle Classes A Proxy for Controversial Assessments of Globalization	28
	1.4 Connecting Individual Environmental Awareness and Society	32
	1.4.1 Northern Environmental Awareness vs. Southern Environmentalism of the Poor?	33
	1.4.2 Civil Society and Reflexive Modernization	36
	References	38
	Part I Modernities, Globalization and Consumption	43
	2 Convergence and Divergence in Societal Modernization: Global trends, Regional Variations, and Some Implications for Sustainability	44
	2.1 Introduction	44
	2.2 Modern Society in a Differentiation Theoretical Perspective	46
	2.3 The Multiple Modernities Paradigm	49
	2.4 Global Modernization, Regional Variety	53
	2.5 Conclusion	59
	References	60
	3 Consumerist Lifestyles in the Context of Globalization: Investigating Scenarios of Homogenization, Diversification and Hybridization	63
	3.1 Complex Connectivities	63
	3.2 Framing the Cultural Dimension of Globalization	65
	3.2.1 Time-Space Relations -- A Pivot of Cultural Globalization Debate	66
	3.2.2 Organizational Features and Concepts of Culture	67
	3.2.2.1 Concepts of Culture	69
	3.3 Paradigms of Cultural Globalization	69
	3.3.1 Homogenization	70
	3.3.2 Diversification	72
	3.3.3 Hybridization	74
	3.4 A Deliberate Integration of Views	76
	References	77
	4 Who are the Globalizers? The Role of Education and Educational Elites	79
	4.1 Introduction	79
	4.2 Unequal Globalization?	81
	4.3 Cosmopolitan Attitudes	86
	4.4 Conclusion	89
	4.5 Appendix: Construction of the Transnationality Index	91
	References	92
	5 Provider Strategies and the Greening of Consumption Practices: Exploring the Role of Companies in Sustainable Consumption	94
	5.1 Introduction	94
	5.2 Outline of the Argument	96
	5.3 Why Looking at Environmental Impacts of Consumption?	97
	5.4 Direct and Indirect Environmental Impacts and the Relative Power of the Citizen-Consumer in Production-Consumption Chains	98
	5.5 Provider Strategies for Developing Green Offer	100
	5.5.1 Involvement in ''Cleaner Production'' Strategies	101
	5.5.2 Involvement in Product Policy Strategies	101
	5.5.3 Involvement in Corporate Social Responsibility Strategies	102
	5.6 Consumer Orientation Within Provider Strategies	103
	5.6.1 Information and Presentation Strategies	105
	5.6.2 The Socio-Cultural Dimension of Consumer Oriented Strategies	107
	5.7 Extending the Analysis to Non-OECD Countries and Their Developing New Middle Classes	108
	5.7.1 Globalizing Companies, Globalizing Publics	109
	5.7.2 Green Consumer Orientations in Different Regions of the World	110
	References	111
	6 From Small Objects to Cars: Consumption Expansion in East Asia	114
	6.1 Visual Environment	116
	6.2 Four Levels of Consumption	117
	6.2.1 Small Objects: Modernity as Adornment	117
	6.2.2 Television: East Asian Cultural References	118
	6.2.3 Primacy of Home/Family Consumption	119
	6.2.4 Cars	121
	6.3 Not Yet Middle Class	121
	6.4 Consumerism as State Project	123
	6.5 Sustainability	124
	References	127
	Part II New Middle Classes in China, Brazil, Ecuador and Israel	129
	7 Rising Capitalism, Emerging Middle-Classes and Environmental Perspectives in China: A Weberian Approach	130
	7.1 Introduction	130
	7.2 Beyond Reductionism: A Weberian Analysis of Chinas Economic Success	131
	7.3 Socio-Economic Changes and Cultural Factors	135
	7.4 The Chinese Middle Class Between Consumerism and Traditional Values	140
	7.5 Taming the Dragon: Prospects of Environmental Progress in China and the Role of the Middle-Class	145
	References	148
	8 Globalization of Lifestyle: Golfing in China	154
	8.1 Introduction	154
	8.2 Hierarchy of Needs, Lifestyle, Conspicuous Consumption and Golf	157
	8.2.1 Lifestyle and Conspicuous Consumption	157
	8.2.2 Conspicuous Consumption and Golf	159
	8.3 Golfing Development as Part of the Lifestyle in China	161
	8.3.1 Leisure and Sport	162
	8.3.2 Investment and Conducting Business	162
	8.3.3 Acquiring Status	163
	8.3.4 Promotion by Public Media and Tourism Industry	163
	8.3.5 Golfing and its Impacts on the Environment and Society	164
	8.4 Final Remarks	164
	References	167
	9 Who are the Knowledge Workers of Campinas, SP, Brazil and how do they Live? Local Impacts of Global Trends	170
	9.1 Introduction	170
	9.2 Identifying Knowledge Workers	172
	9.2.1 Within Which Professions are Knowledge Workers Operating in Campinas?	177
	9.2.2 Consumption	181
	9.3 Conclusions	183
	References	186
	10 Sustainability of a Life M0s C0modo? Agricultural Change, Remaking Families, and the Emerging Indigenous Middle Class in the Ecuadorian Andes	187
	10.1 Introduction: An Embarrassment of Riches?	187
	10.2 Background: Village Wealth and Poverty	190
	10.3 The Rising Costs of a More Comfortable (Ms Comodo) Life: Changing Lifeways and the Pressures of Development	193
	10.4 Agricultural Lives, the Indigenous Middle Class Identities, and the Dolarizacon del Maizal	196
	10.5 Middle Class Maneuvers: The Commodification of Status in Jatundeleg	200
	10.6 Conclusion: Migration and the Pain of Dollars	203
	References	205
	11 New Middle Class and Environmental Lifestyle in Israel	206
	11.1 Introduction	206
	11.2 Environmentalism in Israel	208
	11.3 Social Structures and Environmental Lifestyle	209
	11.3.1 The Correlates of Environmental Atti