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2 Birkbeck L. Rev. 129 (2014)
Brazil's New Middle Class and the Effectiveness of Social Rights through Consumption: A Dialectic of Inclusion and Exclusion

handle is hein.journals/birkbek2 and id is 137 raw text is: Enzo Bello, Renata Piroli Mascarello and Rene Jos6 Keller

Brazil's 'New Middle Class' and the
Effectiveness of Social Rights through
Consumption: A Dialectic of Inclusion
and Exclusion
ENZO BELLO, RENATA PIROLI
MASCARELLO AND RENE JOSt KELLER*
In a social panorama where consumption becomes a source
of personal fulfilment, its practice does not seem to support
an alternative path to that of bourgeois rationality. Recent
government policies in Brazil encourage consumption as a
way to offer greater autonomy to citizens, reflecting the
emergence of the so-called 'new middle class'. This paper
intends to gather evidence which answers the following
questions: (i) May the extent of consumption contribute to
the fortification of citizenship and social inclusion? (ii) Can
the phenomenon of consumption be understood within the
perspective of implementation of social rights? From the
materialist dialectical method, this research examines, in the
light of the Brazilian reality, points of conflict and
convergence between the social facade (consumer) and the
political facade (citizenship) of the person, in particular
referring to the members of the 'new middle class.'
1. Introduction
The so-called 'new middle class' in Brazil has been the target of
several recent studies that seek to understand this phenomenon.
* ENZo BELLO: PhD in Law at Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Reader at Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil. Researcher at Universidade de
Caxias do Sul (UCS), Brazil. Co-leader of the Laboratory of Interdisciplinary
Studies in Latin American Constitutional Law at Universidade Federal Fluminense,
Brazil. Email: enzobello@gmail.com. RENATA PIROLI MASCARELLO: Master of Law
candidate at Universidade de Caxias do Sul, Brazil. RENE JOsE KELLER: Master of
Law at Universidade de Caxias do Sul, Brazil. The translations in this article are the
authors' own, but all attempts have been made to clearly convey the meaning of the
original texts to the reader.

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