Introduction: The Middle Class Debate and Its Limits

Abstract

The question of class and inequality is again on the agenda of social science. Piketty’s book Capital and books by Therborn (The Killing Fields of Inequality) and Stieglitz (The Great Divide) point to rising inequality all over the world. At the same time, Therborn and development economists observe the rise of a new middle class in the Global South. In African studies, this triggered a sceptical reaction from social scientists working on Africa. This introduction presents one of the first comprehensive discussion of the social science debate on the African middle class. The main conclusion is that the existing scepticism towards the application of the middle class concept needs to be pushed one step forward to an analysis that goes beyond class.