A new class for a new South Africa? The discursive construction of the ‘Black middle class’ in post-Apartheid media

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehita Iqani
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
English Language ◽  
New South ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Black Middle Class ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
New Class ◽  
Media Narratives ◽  
Qualitative Discussion

This article presents a qualitative discussion about the ways in which English-language media in South Africa labelled the Black middle class ‘new’ during the first decade of political freedom (the 1990s). The empirical approach is discursive, drawing on a corpus of archival media material in which the ‘new Black middle class’ is discussed and debated. The article argues that three key discursive trends are evident therein: the first claiming the new Black middle class as full of socio-economic potential (but also as immature and not capable of delivering on that potential), the second attempting to rehistoricize the Black middle class and the third accusing the class of materialism, greed and being ‘sell-outs’. These discursive themes are discussed in relation to relevant scholarly literature about ‘new’ middle classes. This article concludes that media narratives about the newness of the Black middle class were the site of the symbolic contestation and discursive construction of the consuming class in South Africa.

scholarly journals Vryheid en verbond: ’n Ou-Testamentiese perspektief

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
H.F. Du Plooy
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
New South ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Boer War ◽  
The People

Freedom and covenant: A perspective from the Old Testament A century after the end of the Anglo-Boer War freedom remains an important issue and some people nowadays constantly ask whether they have lost their freedom in the New South Africa. This article offers an Old Testament perspective on freedom and first of all discusses the importance of blessings and curses within the framework of the covenant. This is followed by a discussion of two passages from the Old Testament – Deuteronomy 28 and Jeremiah 34 – viewing the loss of freedom as a result of disobedience to God’s commandments. The discussion highlights the fact that political freedom could not be regarded as a basic right of a people in the time of the Old Testament. Freedom in their own land was regarded as a gift of God to Israel. To retain this freedom the people had to obey God’s commandments; otherwise this freedom could be lost. Deuteronomy 28 indicates that obedience will result in blessings, while disobedience will result in punishment. Freedom in their own land is mentioned together with the blessings and the curses. Jeremiah 34 proceeds from the same premise, but relates the loss of freedom to the people’s failure to release their slaves.

The New Black Middle Class in South Africa

Politikon ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 470-471
Author(s):  
Busisiwe Khaba
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Black Middle Class

The new black middle class in South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 117 (469) ◽  
pp. 715-716
Author(s):  
Ján Michalko
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Black Middle Class

scholarly journals Black consumers perceptions towards luxury brands in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 28-36
Author(s):  
K Mercy Makhitha
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Black Middle Class ◽  
Luxury Brands ◽  
Global Brands ◽  
The Past ◽  
Gender And Education ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Black Consumers ◽  
Area Data

The paper determines the black consumers’ perceptions towards luxury brands in South Africa. The purchase of luxury brands has been on the rise locally and internationally. Global brands have been investing in SA by expanding to the region. The demand for luxury brands has also increased over the past decades. In SA, the middle-class group has also increased, particularly the black middle class which increased the market for luxury brands. To achieve the objectives of the study, a survey was conducted among black consumers in Thohoyandou, Venda, South Africa. Data were collected by two fieldworkers who intercepted shoppers visiting a regional mall in the area. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25. The descriptives, factor analysis, and ANOVA were analyzed to achieve the objectives of the study.  The findings of the study reveal that black consumers are more influenced by the rarity and uniqueness of the brands followed by the financial and functional values of the brands. Black consumers’ perceptions towards luxury brands were found to differ across age and income groups but did not differ across gender and education levels. Organizations targeting black consumers must design brands that are rare and unique and ensure that brands deliver the financial and functional values desired by black consumers

(Neo)Liberal populism and Ireland’s ‘squeezed middle’

Race & Class ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-49
Author(s):  
Rosie R. Meade ◽  
Elizabeth Kiely
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Welfare Recipients ◽  
The Political ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Parliamentary Debates ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Media Narratives ◽  
The Unemployed

Acknowledging definitional problems associated with the concept of ‘populism’, this article shifts the analytic gaze away from actors or politics that are conventionally characterised as populist, on to an analysis of the doing of populism by those who typically evade the populist label. Tracing the discursive construction of the ‘squeezed middle’ in Irish mainstream media and parliamentary debates between January 2014 and March 2019, the authors analyse how this signifier was mobilised to fuel and foment ressentiment among middle-earning taxpayers. This article analyses how the discourses of the ‘squeezed middle’ functioned ideologically, as a form of anti-welfare populism, redirecting blame for middle-class ontological and material insecurities on to unemployed welfare recipients who were depicted as immoral, lazy and insulated from hardship. This article highlights how populism operates from the so-called moderate centres of liberal democracy and not exclusively from the political margins. Irish political and media narratives of the ‘squeezed middle’ are seen as part of a larger project whereby damaging myths about the unemployed are propagated in service of ideological class warfare; legitimising neoliberal austerity and normalising unequal economic relations.

The New Black Middle Class in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Lemon
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Black Middle Class

Shuttling between the suburbs and the township: the new black middle class(es) negotiating class and post-apartheid blackness in South Africa

Africa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 568-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thabisani Ndlovu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
South African ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Black Middle Class ◽  
Status Inconsistency ◽  
Literary Sources

AbstractA generation of South Africa's new black middle class shuttles between the suburbs and the townships. This has become the focus of some South African humorous essayists, among them Ndumiso Ngcobo and Fred Khumalo, on whose works this article is based. The article argues that studying the new black middle class should extend to these literary sources and approaches. The humorous essays by these two authors consistently reference metaphors of mobility and the vexed intersection of black middle-classness, consumption, racialized residential zoning and compromised status. Through the mode of humour, the essays evince the psychological burdens borne by those with township roots but who live in the suburbs, as they negotiate status inconsistency in a post-apartheid search for human dignity. Constant visits to the township and the retreat to the suburbs constitute negotiations of spatial, financial and psychic concerns imbricated in the legacies of apartheid's racialized politics of distinction.

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