'The Stars Down to Earth'

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-9
Author(s):  
Kirstine Munk
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Western World

Astrology is immensely popular in the modern, Western world. Studies have shown that 'belief' in astrology is mainly found among the lesser educated parts of the population, however, astrology is mainly used by educated middle-class women. This article explores why.

The Middle Classes in Non-Western Societies: Inner Dynamics and Self-Assertion Perspective

2015 ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
A. Volodin
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The State ◽  
Western World ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
The Social

The present article focuses on the entity of middle classes in non-Western societies. The social formation of this kind is a relatively new phenomenon. As far as the modern Western societies are concerned, the social and political “materialization” of the above-mentioned entity has covered the period of no less than five centuries. The middle class in modern transitional societies began to emerge quite recently, with a few notable exceptions, after gaining sovereignty. That is one of the reasons why political systems in the non-Western world are mostly fragile and susceptible to instability of different kinds and origins. The so called “Arab awakening” gives a vivid example for the “underdevelopment” of indigenous middle classes. Whilst in the advanced industrial societies middle classes were (and are) the building blocks of social structure, economic and political development, elite recruitment, etc., among the non-Western societies (with the salient exception of the North-East Asia) the process of the middle class institutionalization as well as its economic and political self-assertion is still under way, somewhere at the initial stage of development. Comparing various non-Western societies from the middle class inner dynamics as well as self-assertion perspective, the author concludes that in the ultimate analysis, the maturity of this process is dependent on the pro-active and creative role of the State. The latter serves as the main driving force of the middle class consolidation and the instrument of political and economic systems for increasing and advancing development. The cases of India, on one hand, and Indonesia, on the other, demonstrate convincingly that the State remains the leading institution of the society able to accelerate economic growth and development, but also to stimulate the emergence and socio-political assertion of the middle class in contemporary non-Western world.

Searching for lost femininity: Russian middle-aged women’s participation in the post-Soviet consumer culture

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-188
Author(s):  
Maria Davidenko
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Western World ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Stable Period ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Normative Practices ◽  
Interpersonal Level

In the existing literature, the relatively stable period of the 1970s, in Russia, is characterised by the rise of ‘socialist consumer modernity’, while the affluent 2000s were the time when a new phenomenon, ‘the culture of glamour’, emerged. Both periods parallel some cultural developments in the western world: the 1970s–1980s supposedly saw the rise of late modernity whereby individuals, freed from constraints of social structures, engage in ongoing process of self-reflexivity and self-fashioning, through consumption. In this article, drawing on the interviews with 20 middle-aged women from Moscow, I examine the limitations on self-fashioning as a means of achieving and maintaining a position of privilege. I particularly focus on the women’s concerns about failing to engage in normative practices of self-care, including anti-ageing cosmetic procedures, and hence failing to embody feminine dispositions that had value in their middle-class milieu. The analysis of such concerns helps discern the ways different markers of identity (gender, class and age) interplay and act as enablers or constraints in the mundane struggle for power at the interpersonal level.

scholarly journals Masculinidades, yoga y espiritualidad en la cárcel Un estudio cualitativo sobre la práctica del yoga en centros penitenciarios masculinos

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-32
Author(s):  
Mar Griera
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Alternative Conceptions ◽  
Western World ◽  
Male Population ◽  
The Impact

In recent years, yoga has gained popularity as a practice oriented to the search for personal, spiritual and physical well-being. The dominant profile of the yoga practitioner has been defined, mostly, as a woman, middle class and living in cities of the western world. However, recent research shows that yoga, as well as other practices from holistic spirituality, are also gaining ground among the male population. Nonetheless, there are almost no studies that focus on investigating the intersection between masculinity and holistic spirituality. This article is a first step to fill this gap. The objective is to understand sociologically the processes of popularization of yoga in a context with a majority presence of working class men -prison institutions-, and to analyze the impact of the practice of yoga in the emergence of alternative conceptions of masculinity

Between Democracy and Plutocracy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mugambi Jouet
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Western World ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Rich

Wealth inequality is much sharper in America than all other industrialized countries. The income of the richest 1% Americans has soared while the income of ordinary people either decreased or stagnated in recent decades. However, America used to be a rather middle-class society. It was not before the 1980s that the G.O.P.’s far-right branch grew more influential in challenging the oppression of “big government.” New Deal era policies were gradually abandoned and wealth inequality soared. Ronald Reagan claimed that “fascism was really the basis for the New Deal,” and his heirs followed suit in denouncing the federal government’s “tyranny.” Overall, the center of the U.S. political debate on economic issues is drastically more to the right than in Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The Democratic Party is far less devoted to the interests of the poor, the working-class, and the middle-class than other left-wing parties in the West. The G.O.P. tends to cater only to the richest of the rich, unlike virtually no other major conservative party in the modern Western world.

The Rise of the Egyptian Middle Class

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Relli Shechter
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class
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