Doctoral Dissertation Research: Transformation of the Middle Classes in Lima, Peru

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Throughout Latin America, scholars have mourned the fall of the region's middle classes due to the inflation and unemployment accompanying market reforms. But in Peru, while some report the demise of the 'traditional' criollo middle class, others celebrate the creation of an emerging middle class, consisting of second and third generation Andean migrants who achieved upward mobility through the urban informal economy. It seems that Peru's middle classes are not shrinking, as in other Latin American nations, but are expanding and diversifying, transforming one of the region's most hierarchical societies in the process. This dissertation research project by a cultural anthropologist will investigate the twin puzzle of the Peruvian middle classes through a comparative study of how families from two middle class groups in Lima, Peru have adjusted to neoliberal policies. The Peruvian middle classes is an ideal site for studying this because it offers a natural case in which two groups each with distinct sets of practices and mentalities confront the same market reforms in a shared social space. This study hypothesizes that differing kinship relations and the distinct emphases the Andean and criollo mentalities placed on working and saving activities explain the practices the two groups developed in response to market policies. This is investigated through a comparative analysis of (1) rationalizations of family budgets and resources (saving) and (2) use and rationalization of time and how it organizes daily production activities (working) in the two groups. This conceptual focus on practices will generate new testable hypotheses not about the causal relation between values and social structure, but about how these emerge from relational practices that are both structured by and structuring of mentalities. Broader Impact: This research, in addition to training a young scholar, offers a more complex understanding of the effects of neoliberal reforms in Latin America by focusing on the reasons behind the rise and fall of middle class groups and the influence this has on the emergence of democratic and free market institutions. Such knowledge will be of special interest to those concerned with how particular cultural practices mediate the effects of political economic reforms. This project is jointly supported by NSF's Cultural Anthropology and Office of International Science Americas programs.