Identity Investments
Award Winner
2024: Consumers and Consumption Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award
Winner of the 2024 Consumers and Consumption Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award, sponsored by the American Sociological Association (ASA) - Section on the Sociology of Consumers and Consumption.
After Pinochet's dictatorship ended in Chile in 1990, the country experienced a rapid decline in poverty along with a quickly growing economy. As a result, Chile's middle class expanded dramatically, echoing trends seen across the Global South as neoliberalism took firm hold in the 1990s and the early 2000s. Identity Investments examines the politics and consumption practices of this vast and varied fraction of the Chilean population, seeking to better understand their value systems and the histories that informed them.
Using participant observation, interviews, and photographs, Joel Stillerman develops a unique typology of the middle class, made up of activists, moderate Catholics, pragmatists, and youngsters. This typology allows him to unearth the cultural, political, and religious roots of middle-class market practices in contrast with other studies focused on social mobility and exclusionary practices. The resultant contrast in backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of these four groups animates this book and extends an emerging body of scholarship focused on the connections between middle-class market choices and politics in the Global South, with important implications for Chile's recent explosive political changes.
"Using the innovative concept of identity investments as a unifying thread, Stillerman shows how distinct fractions of the contemporary Chilean middle class manage to retain commitments to guiding activist, religious, and moral visions. A must-read for scholars interested in culture, consumption, education, urban, and social movement studies."—Omar Lizardo, University of California, Los Angeles
"[Identity Investments], which reveals the identity investments of the middle class through its thick description, is not only valuable as a study of the middle class but also as a study that sheds light on Chile's recent sociopolitical transformations. It also provides a detailed picture of the middle-class reality from the past to the present and gives important insights for addressing the political, social, and economic challenges associated with the middle class's increasing vulnerability."—Kota Miura, The Developing Economies
"Joel Stillerman provides an intricate and refined depiction of the contemporary middle classes in Chile.... In sum, anyone interested in Chilean society, middle classes in general, qualitative sociology, or conceptual innovations derived from Bourdieu will surely enjoy this wonderful book."—Nicolás M. Somma, Social Forces
"Overall, this well-researched, engaging book helps readers understand the transformation of Chilean society over the last 50 years, the consequences of the erosion of traditional middle-class jobs, and families' strategies to adapt to these changes and maintain their identities and cultures."—A. Vergara, CHOICE
"Stillerman's well-documented book addresses the plural and relational nature of the middle classes as an object of study and tackles the pertinence of space as place-meaning-making in the construction of a sense of belonging and social identity. Thus, it constitutes an immense contribution to the current state of the art of contemporary sociological studies of the middle classes in Chile and abroad that also speaks to historical studies of the middle classes."—Claudia Stern, Hispanic American Historical Review
"Identity Investments provides us with a new and promising angle from which to look at the experiences, values, and practices of middle-class families in contemporary society. Well-written, persuasive, and insightful, I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in social class, inequality, culture, and neoliberalism."—Pablo Pérez-Ahumada, Contemporary Sociology
"Joel Phillip Stillerman's Identity Investments gives a clear, detailed qualitative portrait of middle-class life in the Global South after the dashed promises of democratic transition and neoliberal reforms. Stillerman offers a masterclass in analytic and empirical precision."—Celso M. Villegas, American Journal of Sociology
"Methodologically innovative and theoretically robust, Stillerman's book is a brilliant work which provides the reader with a detailed representation of the middle classes in neoliberal Chile. In addition, the author offers suggestive reflections on Chile's recent political history, which has been framed by intense mobilizations for rights and an unprecedented constitutional process, focusing on the ambivalent ways in which the middle classes have taken part in politics."—Miguel Pérez, The Americas
"Written with an eye toward individual stories and broader conceptual tools, this book is an essential work for understanding contemporary Chile."—Joshua Savala, The Americas
