1: Who is The Black Middle Class in History and Theory?

Since the African Development Bank published The Middle of the Pyramid: Dynamics of the Middle Class in 2011, studies on the Black middle class in South Africa have proliferated. These studies have confirmed that the Black middle class is on the rise (Khunou, 2015a; Krige, 2012; Ndletyana, 2014; Southall, 2016; Statistics South Africa, 2009). The growth of a Black middle class has been regarded as an important benchmark for Blacks’ social, political and economic standing. Ndletyana (2014) suggests that middle classes are also important for strengthening democracies, as their power lies mostly in their citizenship rights.

We will see, however, that the definition of middle class is a shifting target. While many studies grapple with how to define the Black middle class, and some try to unpack self-definitions of middle class, this study, unusually, turns the lens on the researchers as well as the researched in order to get a handle on a slippery concept. As Black researchers studying the Black middle class, we recognised the importance of reading ourselves as possible insiders and outsiders to the middle class position and how that impacted how we engaged with the participants and theorising on the concept. In our endeavours to do research, we have engaged emerging researchers in this project as important knowledge creators and not as merely fieldworkers as is done in most studies.