Volume 2 issue 1 April 2014

Brazil’s ‘New Middle Class’ and the Effectiveness of Social Rights through Consumption: A Dialectic of Inclusion and Exclusion

Enzo Bello, Renata Piroli Mascarello and Rene José Keller
In a social panorama where consumption becomes a source of personal fulfilment, its practice does not seem to support an alternative path to that of bourgeois rationality. Recent government policies in Brazil encourage consumption as a way to offer greater autonomy to citizens, reflecting the emergence of the so-called ‘new middle class’. 

This paper intends to gather evidence which answers the following questions: (i) May the extent of consumption contribute to the fortification of citizenship and social inclusion? (ii) Can the phenomenon of consumption be understood within the perspective of implementation of social rights? From the materialist dialectical method, this research examines, in the light of the Brazilian reality, points of conflict and convergence between the social facade (consumer) and the political facade (citizenship) of the person, in particular referring to the members of the ‘new middle class.’