Middle-class Rebellions? Precarious Employment and Social Movements in Portugal and Brazil (2011-2013)*

Abstract

*This text centers on the demonstrations and protest movements that have emerged over the past three years, with a particular focus on Portugal and Brazil. The main argument is based on the hypothesis that they involve social dynamics and tensions that reflect a middle class drive in which youth and precarious employment play a key role. It presents data and empirical evidence on inequality in Portugal in order to reveal the nature of the main movements as protests mobilized against the suppression of rights and the undermining of working conditions. The situation in Brazil is examined in the light of the recomposition of working class conditions, taking into account the constraints and uncertainties of the Brazilian model of development. It also analyzes the social composition of the protesters, on the basis of street surveys carried out during this period.

Anatomy of Brazil's Subjective Well-Being: A Tale of Growing Discontent and Polarization in the 2010s

“…At the same time, progress for these groups was hampered by widespread clientelism and corruption. As a result, grievances grew on the eve of Brazil's economic crisis and erupted during the June 2013 protests, which were largely driven by the middle class (Estanque, 2015).…”

“…Research byBarrientos et al (2016) indicates that Bolsa Familia reached about 14 million households in Brazil.13 For example, job turnover in 2009 was still over 85% of formal jobs for low-paying jobs (earning up to 2.5 times the minimum wage)(Estanque, 2015).14 Brazil's middle class comprised 15% of the Brazilian population in the early 1980s; by 2012 it encompassed approximately a third of the country's population according to estimates byFerreira et al (2013).…”

Algeria: Between Transformation and Re-Configuration

“…The actors involved in the movement are linked to the modes of consumption prevalent among the middle strata of society, although this position is more subjective than socioeconomic: by all accounts, the protesters are economically unstable. Thus, the Algerian middle classes seem to be wedged into the space between precarity and individualistic trends (Estanque 2015). The middle classes can be broken down into three identifiable segments: the new middle class, generally employed in nonproductive sectors of the economy; relics of the old middle class (farmers, traders, artisan producers, public sector employees); and a "peripheral" population composed of people with little involvement in the labor market (students, homemakers, and retirees).…”

Precariousness on the Green: The Labor Situation of Chinese Golf Trainers

“…The precariat, precarious work and precarious workers have become a topic of heated controversy both in the field of social sciences and politics. For example, in the United Kingdom and Brazil, research depicting “precarious workers” as a dangerous class has been recently published (Estanque, 2015; Standing, 2011), showing the potential link between the transformation of working conditions and the growing potentiality of social uprising. In contrast, other scholars have pointed out that since precarious workers cannot firmly establish tight links with other workers, they are supposedly less inclined to collectively protest for better working conditions than the former generation of workers (Castel, 2003).…”