Re-Cycling Class: Understanding India’s New Middle Class Bicycling as a Social Practice

• In Event: 178 - Regular Session. Consumers and Consumption 2

Abstract

The new middle classes of Bangalore, India like their counterparts in other Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai, are hailed as India’s emerging consumer class, whose lives and lifestyles represent the ‘success story’ of India’s economic liberalization. In Bangalore, symbols of NMC consumerism are visible in the city’s swanky malls, air-conditioned supermarkets, chic coffee shops and gated complexes. The city has expanded, changing old neighborhoods and creating new ones. It is in this context of westernizing consumption and changing urban landscapes that an apparent interest in eco-friendly lifestyles is emerging among India’s New Middle Classes, as demonstrated by the presence of communities of city bicyclists and neighborhood waste management programs in Bangalore. In this paper, I apply social practice theories with a specific focus on class identities and distinctions to discuss how the new middle classes of Bangalore, India are legitimating, and adopting practices like bicycling that are typically associated with the poor and deprived working classes. I use these cases to investigate how the new middle classes of Bangalore engage with the city and its environments through pro-environmental practices and community action, and interrogate whether such emerging practices have the potential to produce more sustainable forms of consumption within contemporary Indian society.

Author

• Manisha Anantharaman, University of California-Berkeley