137 - Thematic Session. Fragile Middle Class and Hard Times

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

The Fragile Middle Class by Sullivan, Warren, and Westerbrook anticipated many of the key features of the financial crisis that precipitated the Great Recession. Their work also asks important questions about America’s future when the once robust middle class not only declines in size but those who achieve middle class status only have a tenuous claim to it. Three scholars update Sullivan et al. with data collected during the Great Recession and the weak recovery. The add a focus on racial and generational differences in middle-class struggles including identity, school loans, and the recession. All discuss the implications of a fragile middle class for sociological theory and public policy.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizers

• Katherine Mason, Miami University

• Dawn M. Dow, Syracuse University

Presider

• Katherine Mason, Miami University

Individual Presentations

• Status Safeguarding: Mothering Work as Safety Net - Melissa A. Milkie, University of Maryland

• Tiger Mothers and the Middle-class Dream: Asian American Women Managing Race and Class - Miliann Kang, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

• Generation Debt: Changing Patterns in Middle-class Youth Employment and Education - Rachel E. Dwyer, The Ohio State University

• The Middle Class and Risk: How Normal People Cope with Interest, Pension, and Insurance Calculations - Caitlin Zaloom, New York University

Discussant

• Teresa A. Sullivan, University of Virginia