Neoliberalism and the Global Middle Class: A Comparative Study

The rise of what has often been called neoliberalism since 1980 has been accompanied by contrasting and contradictory narratives regarding the middle class. On the one hand, a large number of works have argued the middle class, especially in the west, is faced with a terminal decline as jobs are outsourced, real wages stagnate,returns from wealth outstrip incomes based on economic growth, and multiple crises afflict education, health and the welfare-state. On the other hand, a demographic argument about the rise of the middle classes in emerging economies is touted as the basis for the next big wave of capital accumulation by many others. In this colloquium, four graduate students from the Political Science department help us understand the contradictory impulses and shape-shifting contours of the middle class and its fraught relationship with neoliberal globalization through detailed examinations of the middle class in Denmark, Palestine, South Korea and India in recent decades.

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Free Public Event

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Political Science, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Wumaier Yilamu, 956-8357, wumaier@hawaii.edu, March 20 Poster (PDF)

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