Modernity, Cosmopolitanism, and the Emergence of Middle Classes in Tonga

dc.contributor.author Besnier, Niko
dc.date.accessioned 2010-11-12T20:59:01Z
dc.date.available 2010-11-12T20:59:01Z
dc.date.issued 2009
dc.description.abstract The formation of social classes in Pacific Islands societies and in their diasporas continues to raise theoretical questions about the nature of social classes and their relationship to prior forms of social organization. In Tonga, middle classes both reproduce aspects of the older rank-based system with which they continue to coexist and innovate new forms of acting and being, many of which emerged with the diasporic explosion of the society. While “middle-classness” is fragile and shifting, it is constituted by four important characteristics: an intense awareness of the extralocal; a valorization of consumption; multiple modes of livelihood; and the commoditization of structures of reciprocity. These characteristics form a basis for comparison of Tongan middle classes with non–middle classes locally and with middle classes in other societies of the Pacific and beyond.
dc.format.extent 48 pages
dc.identifier.citation Besnier, N. 2009. Modernity, Cosmopolitanism, and the Emergence of Middle Classes in Tonga. The Contemporary Pacific 21 (2): 215-262.
dc.identifier.issn 1043-898X
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10125/18513
dc.language.iso en-US
dc.publisher University of Hawai‘i Press
dc.publisher Center for Pacific Islands Studies
dc.subject social class
dc.subject diaspora
dc.subject modernity
dc.subject cosmopolitanism
dc.subject consumption
dc.subject commoditization
dc.subject Tonga
dc.subject.lcsh Oceania -- Periodicals
dc.title Modernity, Cosmopolitanism, and the Emergence of Middle Classes in Tonga
dc.type Article
dc.type.dcmi Text
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