The African middle class(es) - in the middle of what?

Abstract

This Briefing and Debate article critically engages with the middle class phenomenon, which emerged as a prominent focus in Development and African Studies. Göran Therborn already wondered if we were entering a century of the middle class. He suggested that the middle class society had emerged as the symbol of an alternative future (Therborn 2012, 17), being promoted among others by the OECD report on global development perspectives (OECD 2011) and Nancy Birdsall (2010).