Sobre Ricardo López-Pedreros, Makers of Democracy. A Transnational History of Middle Classes in Colombia

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Bridging the gap among social classes in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)

The Biafra War has been the subject of many historical accounts and literary texts. Among the novels produced about the Biafra War is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) where the author recounts not only the events leading to the war but also those during and just after the conflict. Though the events of the Biafra War constitute the central theme in Half of a Yellow Sun, Adichie also deals with the relationships among social classes in this novel. One may wonder why the author shows that some upper-class people are keen on their difference, their ‘superiority’, and, on the other hand, people of the upper and middle classes are human and respectful towards lower-class persons. What is the purpose of the writer in drawing this parallel? From a socialist and humanist perspective, this article deals with “bridging the gap among social classes in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun.” Based on sociology, psychology, socialism, and humanism, the paper will first deal with the criticism of the Nigerian upper class and then with Adichie’s advocacy for a socialist and humanist society.

People, Place, and Politics: Local Factors Shaping Middle‐Class Practices in Mixed‐Class German Neighbourhoods

This article takes a nuanced look at the role played by neighbourhood characteristics and local policies in facilitating or limiting the ways in which diversity‐oriented middle‐class families interact and deal with people of lower social classes in mixed‐class inner‐city neighbourhoods. The study draws on interviews and social network analysis conducted in neighbourhoods with different socio‐economic characteristics in the German cities of Hanover and Dusseldorf. A comparative view allows us to analyse how neighbourhood characteristics and local policies influence middle‐classes’ interactions across social boundaries. Our aim is to contribute to ongoing debates on urban policy options: In discussing the conditions encouraging cross‐boundary interactions of specific middle‐class fractions, we argue that the scope of local‐level action is not fully recognized in either policy or academic debates.

Speaking to Power: The Problem of Enabling Subaltern Voices to Be Heard. A Case Study Concerned with Using the Arts to Engage with the Issue of Maternal Mortality in Western Kenya

In the context of consistently poor provision of state maternity services to impoverished women in western Kenya over many decades, this article discusses the use of arts in relation to researching subaltern perspectives and enabling subaltern voices to be heard by the powerful. The argument is made that behaviour change agendas are almost always top down, while requirements for the authorities to engage with subaltern voices are minimal and frequently resisted. Case studies are offered of two artistic interventions—a play and a documentary film, made in 2018 and 2019 respectively, which sought to engage medical authorities and the middle classes regarding the consequences of the, sometimes very weak, implementation of Kenya’s excellent policies in relation to maternal health for the poor. In conclusion, the question of how to more effectively enable the powerless to speak to power is discussed.

Disability and Difference on the New Zealand Frontier

The mid-nineteenth century saw extensive diaspora from Europe to the antipodes. New Zealand in particular was marketed to the poor and middle classes of the United Kingdom (UK) as a “Better Britain”; a pastoral utopia of abundant resources and easy living. These campaigns actively targeted young, able-bodied persons with the aim of creating a thriving and productive colony. The rural community of Milton, Otago, in the South Island, was a farming settlement established predominantly by immigrants from the UK. The University of Otago undertook an excavation at St. John’s Anglican burial ground (SJM) in 2016 with the aim of reconstructing some aspects of the lives of these nineteenth-century European (Pākehā) settlers. One of the 27 individuals recovered, burial 29, was an adult female with a striking thoracic deformity and several other features suggestive of a skeletal growth disorder. Here, we combine multiple lines of bioarchaeological evidence to create an osteobiographyof this individual and discuss the implications of our findings for conceptions of disability, status, personhood, and social value in Victorian frontier society. Tuhinga whakarāpopoto: Ko te puku o ngā tau o te rau tau 1800 te wā i matua heke ai ngā tāngata nō Ūropi ki te tuakoi tonga o te ao. Ko Niu Tīreni tonu i whakatairangahia ki te tūtūā o Peretānia hei Piritana hōu, he “Piritana Pai Ake ”; he whenua haumako, he huhua rauemi, he oranga ngāwari. Ko ēnei whakatairanga hei whaka- poapoa i te hunga rangatahi, i te hunga kua pakari tonu te tīnana hei tuarā hāpai i te koroni hōu, i te koroni tōnui i pīrangitia. Ko te taiwhenua o Milton i Ōtākou, i Te Waipounamu, tētehi hapori pāmu i whakatūria e ngā manene, ko te nuinga nō Peretānia. Nā Te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou ngā rua kōiwi i te urupā Mihinare o Hato Hone (SJM) i keri ake i te tau 2016, ko te whainga matua ko te kimi kōrero mō ngā rā o ngā ao o ēnei tāngata whai nō Ūropi (Pākehā) i te rau tau 1800. Ko tētehi o te 27 tāngata i hahua, arā ko “nehunga 29”, he wahine pa- keke kua hauā rawa ōna kōiwi o te haurua o te tinana ō runga i tōna pito, ā, he tohu anō i kitea e hanga rite ana ki tētehi mate whakahauā kōiwi. I konei whakatōpūhia ai ngā taunakitanga maha kua puta i ngā whakamātautau kōiwi tangata hei waihanga anō i ngā rā o te ao o te wahine nei, ā, ka matapakina ā mātou whakapae mō ngā whakaaro o ngāi koroni wikitōria mō te hauā; mō tōna tūnga, mō tōna mana me tōna noho hei tangata i aua wā.

"“For the look of the thing”: middle-class consumerism in the Mayhew Brothers’ Living for Appearances and the Greatest Plague of Life"

The paper discusses the problem of consumerism in the Mayhew brothers’ Living for Appearances and The Greatest Plague of Life: Or, The Adventures of a Lady in Search of a Good Servant. The two novels offer a satirical comment on the emergence, in the mid-19th century, of a distinctive commodity and consumer culture in England – a development intimately related to the growth and the new visibility of the middle classes. The paper places the novels within their appropriate cultural-historical context and discusses the ways in which they address contemporary anxieties about the new consumerism. Most importantly, it focuses on the nexus between consumption and social aspiration; on commodification; on the imitation and adulteration of commodities and social identities; on the specularization of the self; and, with respect to The Greatest Plague of Life, on the problem of the specifically female gender of consumerism.

‘Your’s Truly’: The Creation and Consumption of Commercial Tourist Portraits

There is a long history of tourists substantiating their visits to a destination through the purchase of portraits that show them against a backdrop of the local setting. While its initial expression in the form of paintings was confined to the social elite who could afford to commission and sit for an artist, the advent of photography democratized the process, enabling the aspiring middle classes to partake in the custom. While some tourists took their own photographs, the majority relied on local photographers who offered their services in studio and open-air settings. Smaller-sized images, such as Cartes de Visite (2.5″ × 4″) and Cabinet Cards (4.5″ × 6.5″), could be enclosed with letters to family and social circles, thus providing proof of visits while the voyage was still in progress. The development of picture postcards as a postal item in the 1890s, coupled with the manufacture of precut photographic paper with preprinted address fields, revolutionized tourist portraiture. Photographers could set-up outside tourist attractions, where tourists could have their portrait taken with formulaic framing against a canonized background. Efficient production flows meant that tourists could pick up their printed portraits, ready for mailing within an hour. Using examples of San Marc’s Basilica in Venice (Italy), as well as Ostrich Farms in California and Florida (U.S.A.), this paper contextualizes the production and consumption of such commercial tourist portraits as objects of social validation. It discusses their ability to situate the visitor in locales iconic of the destination, substantiating their presence and validating their experience. Given the speed of production (within an hour) and their ability to be immediately mailed through the global postal network, such images were the precursor of the modern-day ‘selfies’ posted on social media.

“Professionals, Merchants, and Industrialists Unite!” Middle-Class Masculinities, Subjectivities, and Nationhood, Chile 1932–1952

This article focuses on the formation of the masculine ethos of the middle classes in Chile as a result of their experience in the public sphere and covers the period between 1932 and 1952. The study is based on a discourse analysis of Acción Pública, a middle-class weekly; ANEF magazine, issued by the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Fiscales (Chile’s National Association of Public Servants, ANEF); En Viaje, the magazine published by Chile’s state-owned railway; and Ley 6020 Sueldo Vital (Living Wage Act), legislation benefitting white-collar workers. The article provides an examination of the impact of everyday nationalism on the formation of modern middle-class men identities and explores the extent to which the intersection between expectations of class, labor, and gender led to profound contradictions that may be considered subjectivities of both class and masculinity.

Recognising British Bodies: The Significance of Race and Whiteness in ‘Post-Racial’ Britain

This article examines the significance of race in how nation is articulated by the white middle-classes in ‘post-racial’ Britain. In doing so, it highlights the centrality of bodies and informal markers of difference within processes of national recognition and reveals a normative expectation for British bodies racialised as non-white to perform or inhabit (particular kinds of) whiteness. Bringing insights from post-race theory and advocating a broad conceptualisation of whiteness as a set of relational ideas and codes, the article demonstrates that whiteness continues to shape and underpin dominant conceptions of Britishness – articulated by middle-class white Britons – even as they recognise people of colour individually, and to some extent collectively, as British. Since the role and symbolic power of the white middle-classes is often overlooked in discussions of Britishness, the article makes an important contribution to debates on race and nation, illustrating how whiteness continues to function in alledgedly ‘post-race’ societies. It concludes that narrow definitions of race and whiteness allow their continued significance to be under-estimated and ultimately enable the perpetuation of racialised hierarchies of belonging.