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Consumption Intensified: The Politics of Middle-Class Daily Life in Brazil
Consumption Intensified examines how self-identified middle class Brazilians in São Paulo redefined their class during Brazil’s economic crisis of 1981–1994. With inflation soaring to an astounding 2700 percent, their consumption practices intensified, not only in relation to the national crisis but also to the expanding global consumer culture. Drawing on her observations of everyday practices and on representations of the middle class in popular culture, anthropologist Maureen O’Dougherty explores both the logic and incoherence of middle- to upper-middle-class Brazilian life.
With the supports of middle-class living threatened—job security, quality education, home ownership, savings, ease of consumption—the means and meaning of “middle class” were thrown into question. The sector thus redefined itself through both class- and race-based claims of moral and cultural superiority and through privileged consumption, a definition the media underscored by continually addressing middle-class Brazilians as consumers—or rather, as consumers denied. In these times, adults became more flexible in employment, and put stakes in their children’s expensive private education. They engaged in elaborate comparison shopping, stockpiling of goods, and financial strategizing. Ongoing desire for distinction and “first- world” modernity prompted these Brazilians to buy foreign goods through contraband, thereby defying state protectionist policy. Discontented with the constraints of the national economy, they welcomed neoliberalism.
By uncovering connections between culture and politics, O’Dougherty complicates understandings of the middle class as a social group and category. Illuminating the intricate relation between identity and local and global consumption, her work will be welcomed by students and scholars in anthropology and Latin American studies, and those interested in consumption, popular culture, politics, and globalization.
With the supports of middle-class living threatened—job security, quality education, home ownership, savings, ease of consumption—the means and meaning of “middle class” were thrown into question. The sector thus redefined itself through both class- and race-based claims of moral and cultural superiority and through privileged consumption, a definition the media underscored by continually addressing middle-class Brazilians as consumers—or rather, as consumers denied. In these times, adults became more flexible in employment, and put stakes in their children’s expensive private education. They engaged in elaborate comparison shopping, stockpiling of goods, and financial strategizing. Ongoing desire for distinction and “first- world” modernity prompted these Brazilians to buy foreign goods through contraband, thereby defying state protectionist policy. Discontented with the constraints of the national economy, they welcomed neoliberalism.
By uncovering connections between culture and politics, O’Dougherty complicates understandings of the middle class as a social group and category. Illuminating the intricate relation between identity and local and global consumption, her work will be welcomed by students and scholars in anthropology and Latin American studies, and those interested in consumption, popular culture, politics, and globalization.
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 2002
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March 23, 2007
In her ethnography, Consumption Intensified: The Politics of Middle-class Daily Life in Brazil, Maureen O’Dougherty sets out to define and problematize notions of middle-class through an investigation of consumption patterns and practices during a time of economic crisis in Brazil. Inevitably, her ethnography becomes about much more than middle-class consumption practices as she explores transnational flows of goods and capital and how the quest for modernity actively shapes consumption and identity.
Ultimately, she examines the complex relationship between discourse and experience, combining participant observation, media analysis, interviews, and archival research to investigate the ways that Brazilian middle-class subjectivity is constantly shifting and shaped not only by economic and political forces, but also by native constructions of class. Ultimately, it could be argued that, “a classe media e um sonho, e ilusao” [the middle class is a dream, it’s an illusion].”
Ultimately, she examines the complex relationship between discourse and experience, combining participant observation, media analysis, interviews, and archival research to investigate the ways that Brazilian middle-class subjectivity is constantly shifting and shaped not only by economic and political forces, but also by native constructions of class. Ultimately, it could be argued that, “a classe media e um sonho, e ilusao” [the middle class is a dream, it’s an illusion].”
Displaying 1 of 1 review