The present analysis will focus on the middle class perceptions, experiences and reactions over the current economic crisis. First, we will try to discuss on the definition of the controversial term of the “middle class” by using different kinds of theoretical approaches, coming both from the Marxist and the Weberian tradition. However, what we are mostly interested in, in the frame of political anthropology, is the way people themselves define classes, how they perceive themselves as members of a specific social class and which the main characteristic that distinguish the middle class from the others are. Here we need to make clear that there is not only luck of a common definition of the “middle class” but also a great disagreement on whether this social strata should be considered as a “class” or not. The fieldwork research will help us see how people define themselves through this term and why they choose to include themselves in this social group.
More specifically, we will try to show how the crisis has affected the lives of those people and what changes has brought in their everyday practices and social stratification. We will state here that the crisis has created a double burden, leading them to severe squeeze and mass impoverishment, which derives both from the direct imposition of the austerity package and its dramatic results and from the diminishing of the welfare state, on which they counted. What we will state is that a new social environment has started to emerge, in which people seek their new position. Practically, we wander if we can talk about an end of the middle class, at least as it had developed and existed so far.
