The problem

AN interesting change has occurred in the way the middle class imagines itself. From a time when the idea of the middle class was most commonly represented as one that represented stability and continuity, the middle class sees itself as the prinicipal arbiter of change today. This self-described group of ‘in-betweeners’ is the one that finds itself mediating between a very large number of diverse forces. As it redefines its relationship with the past and arches hungrily towards the future, it is experiencing a series of transformations even as it negotiates a new set of anxieties and expresses itself in new languages.

The possibility of mobility and the ability to broadcast one’s progress in many more ways in one’s everyday life has unleashed a new set of representations. Among these, consumption has been a key force, acting as a language that allows for atomised self-expression, a kind of running commentary of one’s changing place in the world while media and popular culture have transformed themselves dramatically in order to represent, reassure and reconfigure this class.

Along with these changes, come a whole new set of questions. What kind of social and political formations are we likely to see in response to this emerging world which puts desire at its centre? As the middle class attempts to manoeuvre itself in and out of creative possibilities and constraining definitions, does it simultaneously find itself echoing patterns that are imitative in nature? Are the new modes of representation allowing more room for self-expression or are they cramping the imagination in pre-fabricated structures? How does this class negotiate a relationship with the past given its new found mobility and its sense of velocity? As new waves of immigrants wash up on the shore of the middle class, what alternative imaginations are getting unleashed? Is the idea of a single middle class really relevant anymore?

This issue of Seminar puts together perspectives from a variety of vantage points and asks these questions in an attempt to bring alive the transformations that the middle class is experiencing in its everyday life.