The neoliberal urban mirage: Ironies of middle class co-option and collaboration

Abstract

The study of urban marginality has largely focused on the plight of the urban poor, often neglecting the role of the middle class in shaping urban exclusion. Although some studies have shed light on the nexus between the middle class and neoliberal politics in the advancement of exclusionary economic and political agendas, key questions remain unaddressed: Who constitutes the urban middle class and what are the variations within this category? What are the implications of an aspirational middle class that has bought into the neoliberal worldview without benefitting from its economic resources? How does the middle class play an influential yet deeply contradictory role in shaping the urban imaginary? These questions are especially important in light of recent data that suggests that the rise of the Indian middle class is neither spectacular in numbers nor considerable in terms of income mobility. This paper examines the ironies and contradictions inherent in the cooption and collaboration of the middle class with regards to neoliberal urbanism. It shows the processes by which middle class collusion with the neoliberal project helps create spatial and socio-political urbanenvironments that are not only hostile to and exclusionary of the urban poor, but also to a large portion of the middle class itself.