Description
Book SynopsisExamines how self-identified middle class Brazilians in Sao Paulo redefined their class during Brazil's economic crisis of 1981-1994. Illuminating the intricate relation between identity and local and global consumption, this work is suitable for students and scholars in anthropology and Latin American studies.
Trade Review“An outstanding book. . . . The first extensive treatment in English of the problems of Brazilian modernity and consumerism.”—Richard Wilk, Indiana University
“This fascinating and important book is based on a solid foundation of fieldwork and research. O’Dougherty introduces new paradigms and new approaches, and not just for Brazilianists.”—Timothy Burke, Swarthmore College
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Dream Class is Over: Home Ownership, Consumption, and (Re)definitions of Middle-Class Identity
2. Shopping Nightmares, Banking Games, Government Packages: Local Shopping During Inflation
3. The Discrete Sales of the Middle Class: Gender and Generation in a Globalizing Economy
4. The International in Daily Life: Of Debutantes and Disney
5. International Bargain Shopping and the Making of Modernity
6. Delivering the Crisis: The Media and the Middle Class through the Collor Years
7. The Middle Class versus the Nation: Discourses of Region/Race and Morality
8. Deliverance: An End to Inflation and the Promise of Neoliberalism
Notes
Bibliography
Index
