The New Middle Classes

The new middle classes of developing countries are held responsible for boosting extremely resource-intensive lifestyles beyond the OECD-world thus thwarting ongoing efforts to attain a more sustainable future. But how homogeneous are their consumption patterns and why should not globalization include the extension of environmental concern, too?

"The new middle classes of developing countries are held responsible for boosting extremely resource-intensive lifestyles beyond the OECD-world thus thwarting ongoing efforts to attain a more sustainable future. But how homogeneous are their consumption patterns and why should not globalization include the extension of environmental concern, too?"The New Middle Classes" challenges a narrow understanding of lifestyles and consumption by analyzing the issue not only in terms of attitudes and preferences but of socio-economic features and governmental policies, too."

Modernities, Globalization and Consumption.- Who are the New Middle Classes and why are they Given so Much Public Attention?.- Convergence and Divergence in Societal Modernization: Global trends, Regional Variations, and Some Implications for Sustainability.- Consumerist Lifestyles in the Context of Globalization: Investigating Scenarios of Homogenization, Diversification and Hybridization.- Who are the Globalizers? The Role of Education and Educational Elites.- Provider Strategies and the Greening of Consumption Practices: Exploring the Role of Companies in Sustainable Consumption.- From Small Objects to Cars: Consumption Expansion in East Asia.- New Middle Classes in China, Brazil, Ecuador and Israel.- Rising Capitalism, Emerging Middle-Classes and Environmental Perspectives in China: A Weberian Approach.- Globalization of Lifestyle: Golfing in China.- Who are the Knowledge Workers of Campinas, SP, Brazil and how do they Live? Local Impacts of Global Trends.- Sustainability of a Life Más Cómodo? Agricultural Change, Remaking Families, and the Emerging Indigenous Middle Class in the Ecuadorian Andes.- New Middle Class and Environmental Lifestyle in Israel.- New Middle Classes in India.- The Political Economy of Lifestyle: Consumption, India's New Middle Class and State-Led Development.- "Environmentality" in the Neoliberal City: Attitudes, Governance and Social Justice.- India's 'New Middle Class' and the Globalising City: Software Professionals in Bangalore, India.- The Changing Food Scenario and the Middle Classes in the Emerging Megacity of Hyderabad, India.- Highly Qualified Employees in Bangalore, India: Consumerist Predators?.