(In)Security of the Kenyan Middle Classes: Social Mobility and the Fear of Falling

• Applicant: Dr. Lena Kroeker
• Subject Area: African, American and Oceania Studies ; Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 438212810

The African middle class is typically presented as both expanding in size and as moving upward, socially. Social mobility is an almost inevitable part of any Kenyan biography which can result in social rise or, as the flip side, in downward social mobility and poverty. The debate on the African middle class has given little attention to the possibilities of downward mobility or to the arrangements people make to cushion dire effects. On the other hand, the debate about social protection has given little attention to issues of class.This project aims at combining the two debates and to conceptualise the term middle class with relation to social protection and the fear of falling (back) into poverty.This ethnographic, empirically informed project shall analyse how the Kenyan middle classes act to cushion themselves against the threat of declining social sta-tus. I propose to investigate on social mobility over the life course, on social networks promising support in times of need, and on entitlements.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants