Emerging middles: Class, development and the halal economy in Indonesia and Malaysia

The rise of the middle classes in the Global South plays a key role in global development arguments characterized by “converging divergence,” where there are decreasing inequalities between countries and increasing inequalities within countries. The concept of the middle class in the social sciences helps explain the origins of the modern world, with the middle class occupying a mythical place in the advent of development and modernity. Critiques of global development with respect to the middle class focus on the analytical meaning of “middle” and “class”, and the broader issue of insufficient attention to the history and context of the middle class. These issues are often most hotly debated in connection with the middle classes in middle-income countries (“emerging middles”) that may be caught in a middle-income trap. Based on a historical and ethnographic analysis of Indonesia and Malaysia as “emerging middles,” this paper argues that a qualitative and comparative approach to a lifestyle analysis of middle-class transformation strengthens understanding of global development. The central research question concerns how the state and market in Indonesia and Malaysia have shaped Muslim middle-class lifestyles. Our methodology is inspired by a “middle position”, involving combining historical/ethnographic analysis with insights from global development when discussing the “middles”, that is, middle-class groups in middle-income countries.