The New Black Middle Class in South Africa

Provides the most comprehensive account since the early 1960s of South Africa's "black middle class". 2016 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title The "rise of the black middle class" is one of the most visible aspects of post-apartheid society in South Africa. Yet while it has been a major actor in the country's democratic reshaping, analysis of its role has been all but lacking. Rather, the image presented by the media has been of "black diamonds", consumers of the products of advanced industrial economies, and of corrupt "tenderpreneurs" who use their political connections to obtain contracts. This book seeks to complicate that picture with a much-needed analysis that recounts its historical development in colonial society prior to 1994, before examining the size, shape andstructure of the new black middle class in contemporary South Africa and its relation to its counterparts in the Global South. Roger Southall is Professor Emeritus in Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand. Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Swaziland): Jacana

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Why Study the Black Middle Class? The Middle Class: Problems and Controversies The Black Middle Class in South Africa 1910-1994 The Black Middle Class in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Size, Shape and Structure Black Class Formation under the ANC Education and Black Upward Social Mobility The Black Middle Class at Work The Social World of the Black Middle Class The Politics of the Black Middle Class Afterword: South Africa's Black Middle Class in an African Context

About the Author :
ROGER SOUTHALL is Emeritus Professor in Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand and Professorial Research Associate, Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS. His books include Liberation Movements in Power: Party and State in Southern Africa (2013), The New Black Middle Class in South Africa (2016) and Whites and Democracy in South Africa 2022).

Review :
2016 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Suggesting that the role of the black middle in class in shaping South African democracy has been largely overlooked, Southall details the development of this segment of society both before and after the end of apartheid in 1994. He seeks to challenge prevailing depictions of middle-class blacks as, at best, too narrow. This is a very important and timely study that will help make sense of perhaps the key social actors in contemporary South African society. Southall has brought together a rapidly growing volume of disparate studies of South Africa's black middle class and provided an incisive overview with scholarly objectivity. He succeeds admirably in his aim of enabling us to assess better both the social character of the black middle class and its potential as political actor, and deserves congratulation for providing a landmark study. An insightful and engaging read for those who seek to learn more about social stratification and mobility in South Africa. This book, without question, will become the standard work on its topic...The South African middle classes have been relatively neglected in contemporary studies... this careful overview fills a crucial gap. Roger Southall's book delivers an insightful contribution to our understanding of South African society. His assessment of the structures of power that shape the lives of millions of South Africans is historically embedded, yet contextualized in the latest events, including the 2015 student protests.