English summary

Perceptions of class in Soweto – qualitative and quantitative data

Claire Ceruti and Mosa Phadi

Our study of class identities in Soweto, South Africa’s biggest township, suggest that the processes which have led to individualization of class identities in Western countries, and which underpin the turn to culture in British class analysis, have played out differently in South Africa. Whereas the middle class became synonymous with ordinary in Britain, the middle class identity in Soweto develops in contrast to an assertive lower class identity. We combine detailed descriptions of identities and how they are arrived at with data from a representative survey to understand how Sowetans interpret their lived experience and public discourse as class identity