Social Segments Research Articles

ERKEN DÖNEM SİNEMA ARAŞTIRMALARINDA TEMEL EĞİLİMLER: PAYNE FONU ÇALIŞMALARI ÖRNEĞİ

Cinema, which was included in social life as an art and entertainment tool at the end of the 19th century, gained a mass dimension in a short time. Cinema, which was the most preferred entertainment tool for the middle and lower classes in that period, also caused anxiety and worries in some social segments. Especially conservative social groups claimed that crime, violence, sexuality, alcohol and cigarette consumption were represented in an encouraging way in movies. As these concerns deepened and became widespread, public and non-governmental organizations had to take some steps in this regard. In the United States, between 1929 and 1932, a research series called Motion Pictures and Youth: The Payne Fund Studies was conducted in cooperation with the Motion Picture Research Council and the Payne Research and Experiment Fund, focusing on the effects of cinema on the behavior of children and youth. The results of this research series have been published in twelve reports. According to the results of the research, cinema has turned into an important tool in the formation of attitudes and behaviors of children and young people, and cinema causes behavioral disorders and sleep problems in children. After the reports of the research were published, heavy censorship policies were implemented in the United States of America. This series, which is one of the most comprehensive and influential studies in the history of film studies, has also inspired many researches in the following periods. Our study, which focuses on Payne Fund Studies within the framework of paradigm, method, content and results, is a descriptive study based on literature review and aims to contribute to the sociology of cinema by increasing the visibility of Payne Fund Studies.

Keskin Siyasi Kutuplaşma ve Demokratik Siyasete Olumsuz Etkileri

Popülizmin yükselişiyle birlikte keskin kutuplaşma yeniden gündeme geldi. Kutuplaşma her dönemde her toplumda karşımıza çıkan bir olgu gibi görünüyor. Ne var ki, kutuplaşma keskinleştiğinde, sosyal kesimler arasında siyasi-sosyal mesafe iyice açıldığında ve birlikte yaşamak için gerekli işbirliği ve uzlaşmayı tahrip ettiği durumlarda demokrasiler için ciddi bir risk haline gelmektedir. Demokratik siyaset toplumda var olan çatışmanın, açık ve iyi tanımlanmış kurallar üzerinde uzlaşılarak rekabete dönüştürüldüğü bir iklimde hayat bulabilir. Buna karşın kutuplaşma çatışmayı vahşileştirerek, dost-düşman kategorisinde işleyen “biz” ve “onlar” savaşına dönüştürür. “Biz” kimliği iyinin, doğrunun, haklılığın, ahlakiliğin, tehdit altında olmanın, mağduriyetin, üstün ve değerli olmanın taşıyıcı haline gelir. “Onlar” ise kötülüğün, ahlaksızlığın, niteliksizliğin, zalimliğin, adaletsizliğin, değersizliğin ve kötülüğün adresi haline getirilir. Keskin kutuplaşma siyaseti var-oluş ve yok-oluş savaşına çevirir. Böylece demokratik siyaset için alan gittikçe daralır, belki tümden ortadan kalkar ve demokratik siyasete dönüş gittikçe zor bir hale gelir. Bu nedenle kutuplaşmayı tanımak, nedenlerini ve semptomlarını anlamak ve en önemlisi demokratik siyaset ve sistem üzerindeki tahrip edici etkilerinin farkında olmak hayati bir hale gelmektedir.

Is There a Future for Indigenous People? The Application of the Ethnography Future Research to Assess the Indigenous People Sustainability

This study explored possible scenarios for the future of the Indigenous Peoples' sustainability linked to the SDGs goal elements by applying the Ethnography Future Research (EFR) synergized with Indigenous methodologies. The study applied interview techniques, storytelling, and sharing-talking circles to collect data, and involved 31 selected informants representing social segments of the Serawai, an Indigenous People in Bengkulu Province, Indonesia. The study employed domain, taxonomy, componential, and cultural themes analysis. The research findings showed that the EFR combined with the indigenous research approach can identify and comprehend the sustainability indicators of Indigenous People. The indicators were obtained through scenarios formulated by research participants including optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely scenarios. The ERF synergized with indigenous research methods facilitated Indigenous Peoples to determine their future based on Indigenous perspectives and allowed researchers to involve Indigenous Peoples in the entire research process. The research findings had been a significant source of data and information in the process of drafting the Regional Regulation on Indigenous Peoples in Bengkulu province.

Analisis Resepsi dalam Film Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika

The power and ability of film has become an audio-visual communication medium that reaches many social segments and is enjoyed by people of all ages and social backgrounds. It is from this basis that convinces experts that films have the potential to influence their audiences. There are various themes in a film's content, two of which are about race and religion. Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika, for example. After this film aired, there were pros and cons to the message in the film. Because Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika places more emphasis on contemporary Islamic issues that are currently in the world's spotlight, including Islamophobia. The film Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika shows Islamophobia, which is a form of ignorance of Western society towards Islam. This film shows the treatment of American society that demeans Islam such as religious intolerance, suspicion and hatred towards Muslims and anti-pluralism attitudes towards other teachings. This research is about how the reception analysis in the film Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika is based on the Indonesian Christian Youth Movement and the Catholic Youth Movement. The purpose of this study is to describe the reception of the Indonesian Christian Youth Movement and the Catholic Youth Generation to the film Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika. By using a descriptive qualitative approach, the researcher chose to conduct research in Jember Regency. The result, from the non-Muslim youth studied, namely the Indonesian Christian Youth Movement Youth and the Catholic Youth Movement, and both had the same results. Where both are in the dominant hegemonic or receive messages in the film Bulan Terbelah di Langit Amerika.

Web application for data collection in marketing strategies: an approach from the perspective of Digital Humanities

INTRODUCTION: Web applications and information systems are predominantly constituted as platforms for acquiring data and services over the Internet. Such applications integrate a technological context filled with intelligent devices interactive amongst themselves, connected to the network, hardware, and software, and accessible to the most varied social segments. OBJECTIVES: This article aims to present a digital mechanism based on product marketing for the acquisition of personal data used by a company in the cosmetics industry; to characterize privacy and data protection in view of the regulatory acts prevailing in Brazil; as well as to discuss how such scenarios affect the consumer. METHODS: We performed a bibliographic survey with a qualitative approach to the information collected, and used a digital platform for commercial operation as object to analysis. RESULTS: We confirmed the use of a digital platform, accessible by different electronic devices, to spread commercial content reaching a considerable volume of users, which then propagated it. We verified an indirect relationship of supply of goods through the transfer of identification, communication and location data. We identified users being directed to the Terms of Promotion and User Privacy Policy, as well as different media resources aiding their understanding. CONCLUSION: The customer's vulnerability in consumer relations stands out, something increasingly frequent in digital environments, which enables a directly proportional flow of information between market and consumer. Finally, we observed that Digital Humanities constitute a broad field of research under an extensive methodological domain, due to its interdisciplinary character, for the digital study of cultural phenomena, and promote critical reflection on the effects that computational methods have on society.

Agri-Food Surplus, Waste and Loss as Sustainable Biobased Ingredients: A Review.

Ensuring a sustainable supply of food for the world’s fast growing population is a major challenge in today’s economy, as modern lifestyle and increasing consumer concern with maintaining a balanced and nutritious diet is an important challenge for the agricultural sector worldwide. This market niche for healthier products, especially fruits and vegetables, has increased their production, consequently resulting in increased amounts of agri-food surplus, waste, and loss (SWL) generated during crop production, transportation, storage, and processing. Although many of these materials are not utilized, negatively affecting the environmental, economic, and social segments, they are a rich source of valuable compounds that could be used for different purposes, thus preventing the losses of natural resources and boosting a circular economy. This review aimed to give insights on the efficient management of agri-food SWL, considering conventional and emerging recovery and reuse techniques. Particularly, we explored and summarized the chemical composition of three worldwide cultivated and consumed vegetables (carrots, broccoli and lettuce) and evaluate the potential of their residues as a sustainable alternative for extracting value-added ingredients for the development of new biodynamic products.

Enhanced women’s decision-making power after the Suchana intervention in north-eastern Bangladesh: a cluster randomised pre-post study

ObjectivesWomen’s decision-making power is a dimension of empowerment and is crucial for better physical and psychosocial outcomes of mothers. Suchana, a large-scale development programme in Bangladesh, actively provided social interventions...

Digital marketing in Islamic perspective: A literature review


 Business and trade become an inseparable part of Islamic life. The rapidly growing market in cyberspace is a challenge for business players in the form of goods and services to expand and develop their business strategies, namely in terms of marketing. The purpose of the research in this article is to find out digital marketing from an Islamic perspective. The method used is a literature review, which is a literature search both internationally and nationally conducted using the Google Scholar database, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, JIM (Journal for Islamic Marketing), which is about 40 journal articles and 10 books of full quality and medium that is considered relevant is used in this study. The results show that sharia digital marketing activities must be based on Islamic principles. The implementation of digital marketing in sharia is almost the same as the digital marketing principle, yet the difference is the application of the character of business actors accompanied by sharia marketing ethics following the principles as described in the previous discussion. The steps of sharia digital marketing taken are as follows: Creating a Website and Social Media Account, Branding, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Video Production, and Segmentation.

A transformative and social marketing ecosystem investigation into drug use among young adults

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the underresearched transformative service research (TSR) and social marketing segment of young adults who use drugs and identify motivators that have been studied in previous literature, using a service ecosystem lens and provide direction for future research into this area. This research provides the evidence-based knowledge for transformative service and social marketing practitioners to design transformative services that target these motivators.Design/methodology/approachThis systematic review, guided by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis framework, examines and analyses 207 articles published between 2015 and 2020.FindingsThis study identified that young adults are motivated to take drugs to enhance one’s experience, to cope, for social reasons, because of individual characteristics and for other reasons. Research has largely focused on microsystem and mesosystem motivators with data collected mainly using a microsystem approach.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the TSR and social marketing literature by providing a holistic investigation into all motivators relevant to young adult drug use. An ecosystem classification and theoretical framework of the motivators is curated to help guide future TSR and social marketing research and interventions.

Converting the sociotechnical convergence hazards into the risks of digitalisation

The creation of digital network platforms is accompanied by an ambiguous process of sociotechnical convergence, during which certain hazards arise as factors that destabilize the functioning of a digital platform, and risks as an expectation of the occurrence of these events. The purpose of the study is to assess the level of conversion of the sociotechnical convergence hazards into the corresponding risks. The research methodology is based on the ecosystem approach and the concept of platform research, supplemented by the authors with the ideas of sociotechnical convergence. To study the conversion of the sociotechnical convergence hazards into the risks of digitalization, the method of empirical verification based on a representative sociological survey was applied. The result of the taxonomic division was the classification of hazards in such subject areas as (hazard of failure); digital surveillance (hazard of excessive digital surveillance); digital morality (hazard of decision-making by artificial intelligence); digital identification (hazard of identification error); digital privacy (hazard of unauthorized use of personal data); digital communication (hazard of virtualization of social contacts); digital accessibility (hazard of digital inequality); digital clusters (hazard of social network segmentation); digital competence (hazard of digital outsider). The authors come to the conclusion that not all hazards are converted into risks in the same way. Strongly expressed explicit risks are observed as a result of converting the hazard of unauthorized use of personal data. Medium-expressed explicit risks appear in case of hazard of failure of digital platforms, hazard of decision-making by artificial intelligence, hazard of identification error, hazard of digital inequality. Weakly expressed explicit risks are typical for the conversion of the hazard of excessive digital surveillance and the hazard of virtualization of social contacts. The hazard of social network segmentation and the hazard of digital outsider are converted into implicit risks.

The relative merit of two segmentation approaches: executives views and a cost-benefit analysis

PurposeThis study aims to capture the views of executives about the merit of using the two segmentation approaches (quantitative vs qualitative). Furthermore, this study aimed to examine costs and benefits for two different segmentation approaches, using a minimax simple cost-benefit analysis (CBA) matrix.Design/methodology/approachA total of 16 semistructured interviews were conducted with executives within the University of Sharjah (UoS). Furthermore, a minimax approach was applied to the CBA study.FindingsEvidence in this study found that the financial cost of quantitative segmentation approaches was higher than qualitative approaches. However, the decision-makers trusted the quantitative approach more regardless of the incurred costs. The study also found that there was a limited knowledge about social marketing and segmentation among executives.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of this study relate to the methodology applied, the sample selected and the lead research. Another factor is selection bias, which limited this study to one organization’s executives. It is conceivable that middle-level management would have had the desire to participate because they make the recommendations to top management in decision-making. The researcher did not collect precise data on time taken to design, implement and analyses the two segmentation studies, which qualified the precision of the CBA. Also, the fact that the sample includes participants from a relatively narrow range of disciplines should be noted as a limitation of the study.Practical implicationsThe current study provides a case study demonstrating how CBA provides a dollar amount estimate permitting alternate segmentation approaches to be compared and contrasted, assisting in the value estimation of any social marketing project.Social implicationsThe paper draws upon two streams of the literature: social marketing and CBA. The paper focused on the understanding of the literature, CBA offers a technique applicable to demonstrating cost savings that can be derived from choosing one method over another. Moreover, CBA assists in understanding the benefits or potential opportunity cost both financially and nonfinancially.Originality/valueThis paper presents one of the first studies conducting a CBA to compare and contrast two segmentation approaches in social marketing. The study provides interesting insights into the perceptions of management executives over alternative research methods, although the results are limited to a case study.

Enhanced Privacy Preserving for Social Networks Relational Data Based on Personalized Differential Privacy

With the popularization and development of social software, more and more people join the social network, which produces a lot of valuable information, but also contains plenty of sensitive privacy information. To achieve the personalized privacy protection of massive social network relational data, a privacy enhancement method for social networks relational data based on personalized differential privacy is proposed. And a dimensionality reduction segmentation sampling (DRS-S) algorithm is proposed to implement this method. First, in order to solve the problem of inefficiency caused by the excessive amount of data in social networks, dimension reduction and segmentation are carried out to divide the data into groups. According to the privacy protection requirements of different users, we adopt sampling method to protect users with different privacy requirements at different levels, so as to realize personalized different privacy. After that, the noise is added to the protected data to satisfy the privacy budget. Then publish the social network data. Finally, the proposed algorithm is compared with the traditional personalized differential privacy (PDP) algorithm and privacy preserving approach based on clustering and noise (PBCN) in real data set, the experimental results demonstrate that the quality of privacy protection and data availability of DRS-S are better than that of PDP algorithm and PBCN algorithm.

THE STRUCTURE AND SPECIFICS OF FINANCING SECONDARY VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN RUSSIA AT THE TURN OF THE 19TH – 20TH CENTURIES

Research purpose is to analyze the structure and specifics of financing secondary vocational education in Russia in the late 19th – early 20th centuries.
 Method or methodology for work performance: the main method is a historical-genetic one; descriptions include quantitative indicators identified in statistical sources.
 Results: the practice of multi-channel financing of secondary vocational schools in late imperial Russia was based on the state-public principle through co-financing, taking into account an organizational-legal form and departmental affiliation of different types of schools, which was reflected in the introduction of public financial reporting of educational institutions. As a result, residual school funding was more sustainable, which was also supported by the high share of tuition fees in school budgets. Acting as a mechanism of social segmentation, it largely hampered the search for external financial resources in the state school, weakening the interaction between the school and the local society and, on the contrary, activating these processes in the non-state school, at the same time it strengthened market mechanisms for relationships with customers of educational services, reducing the quality of education for the future by increasing and maximizing the retention of the contingent of students. The stability of tuition fees, partly regulated by direct state intervention, but restrained by the growth of competition to a greater extent, along with the expansion of charitable practices by transferring them to support not only schools in general, but also individual students, weakened the social segmentation of the school institution, creating conditions for the growth of human capital. The sources of self-sufficiency for production-type schools were insignificant, even in agricultural schools, which training farms could not be converted to a commercial footing. The dominance of items for salaries and maintenance of the material base in the structure of school budget expenditures emphasized the lack of school funding, the problems of teaching staff competitiveness and the usefulness of the material base.
 Practical implications: the historical experience of multi-channel financing can be used in modern practices of replenishing school budgets, including by improving the ways of interaction with local and regional society and the general public.

The negative effects of the pandemic on human behavior; alienation and social anhedonia: the example of sport sciences students

Background and Study Aim. The social change brought about by the pandemic process all over the world has led to the restructuring of human behavior and daily life practices. This process has brought with it some social-psychological problems (such as alienation and social anhedonia) for social segments. For this reason, the aim of the research is to examine the alienation and social anhedonia levels of the students studying at the faculty of sport sciences during the pandemic process.
 Material and Methods. The sample of the research consists of students studying at the faculties of sport sciences of different universities in Turkey. A total of 423 students (271 males, 152 females) participated in the study. Due to the normal distribution of the data, the t-test, one of the parametric tests, was performed for paired groups, and the relationship between Social Anhedonia Scale and Alienation Scale sub-dimensions was tested with Pearson correlation analysis. Statistical analyzes were performed with the “Statistical Package for the Social Sciences” commercial software (SPSS for Windows, version 26.0, SPSS). The significance level was determined as p<0.05 in the analyzes, and skewness and kurtosis values were considered for the normality analysis.
 Results. According to the results obtained, it can be said that the pandemic process negatively affected the social anhedonia and alienation levels of male students studying at the faculty of sport sciences compared to female students. Again, it is seen that the level of alienation of the students who do sports at the professional level is higher than the students who do sports at the amateur level. Similarly, it is seen that the students of the faculty of sport sciences dealing with team sports have higher levels of social isolation, which is one of the sub-dimensions of the alienation scale, compared to the students who are engaged in individual sports. Finally, there is a negative and low-level significant relationship between social anhedonia and alienation scale sub-dimensions (p<0.05; r=-0.187; r=-0.164; r=-132).
 Conclusions. As a result, it can be said that the pandemic process has had similar negative effects on the students studying in the faculties of sport sciences, as in other social segments.

Food Security and Social Inequalities from the Perspective of Women's Rights: Case Study of District Torghar

Purpose: The research study was designed with the sole aim to explore the food security status in the purview of women’s rights in the District Tor Ghar, KP, Pakistan
 Approach: A sample size of 291 out of 760 household heads was selected randomly from 3 villages of Khander Tehsil namely Bilyani, Bimbal, and Dharo. The conceptual framework comprised of an independent variable (availability of food) and one dependent variable (food insecurity). Data on study variables were collected using the Likert scale. The Chi-square test was applied to test the strength of association among study variables.
 Findings: The study found that the limited availability of vegetables, fruits, bread, and meat required for a daily meal for women alongside sufficient milk/ dairy products and dry fruit to feed women at home, were found significant (p <0.05) in association with food insecurity. Thus, lack of availability of food is the root cause of food insecurity among women of the study inhabitants.
 Implications: A policy drive led by an awareness-raising campaign at an institutional, cultural and societal level that ensures the availability of a sufficient amount of quality food to all social segments to overcome the problem of food insecurity, especially with respect to women folk was the major study recommendations.

Consociationalism in Theory and Practice: Methodological Issues of Implementation

In the modern world, political stability, regional peacebuilding and security, and successful political regime transitions strongly depend on the choice of an accurate model that considers all relevant factors and domestic peculiarities. In this sense, peace, sustainable development and mutually beneficial relations, especially in plural societies, require more of them, an option for consociationalism concerning cultural identities and other elements proper to social segments such as language, ethnicity, religion, etc. The article explores the theoretical and practical foundations of consociationalism and cultural relativism, which considers the equality of all cultures as a guarantee for common security in plural societies by referring to all human beings' freedom and equality in dignity and rights. Considering the wide range of influence that “soft power” can exert, the article observes it as a methodology for the best implementation of consociationalism in plural societies and regions. As a result, it is concluded that the overcoming of ethnocentrism is only possible through cultural relativism by applying the principles of consociationalism through the methodology of “soft power” that can serve as a prerequisite for political stability, cultural independence and security of all segments as well as for democratic progress in plural societies.

The Level of Learned Disability among a Sample of Abused Women in Jordan

Learned disability is the state of passivity and surrender that appears among abused women who believe that they are unable to control the conditions of their environment. This learned disability affects aspects of a woman's life, her thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. The phenomenon of violence against women is considered a global phenomenon. It is not limited to a particular society or social segment, but rather an issue related to human existence and the relationship between men and women. Its severity varies from one society to another, being connected with the progress of awareness of the women's important role in building society. Women are a key partner for men in the comprehensive development process in any society. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the level of learned disability in abused women. The study used the descriptive method as the method of correlational studies in the light of the study variables and its objectives. It is the most appropriate method for studying the correlational relations between the variables, and describing and analyzing this phenomenon. The sample of the study was deliberately chosen which was 100 women between the age of 18-50 years. The study also developed a learned disability scale that complies with the nature of the study and its variables. The results indicated that the level of learned disability of abused women, in Jordan, came to the average mean at an average level. This result comes from the abused woman's belief or realization that she is unable to repel violence and defend herself. This belief often occurs as a result of repeated attempts and experiences in which she failed to change situations or control her life or fate. Here she may indirectly learn not to control situations and lose control of the situation, making her feel low in self-esteem due to the state of disability she feels. Besides, the feeling of disability may extend to despair and the expectation of failure in the future. Therefore, it makes her lose the motivation that motivates her to confront violence and deal with the abuser, as she has already condemned herself to failure. Also, there were no differences in all dimensions at the level of (a=0.05) in the level of learning disability among abused women following the age, social situation, and educational level variables. This result may be natural due to the similarity of the nature of the social environments and conditions experienced by abused women in Jordan.

Violence against transsexuals in Sergipe: to trust, or not to trust statistics, that is the question

This article addresses the death of transsexual women, especially those who died in the state of Sergipe. The fight for transsexual rights is slow but has shown results. The silencing suffered by transsexuals has been broken thanks to non-governmental organizations, among which is ANTRA. The theoretical approach will be post-structuralist based on scholars who approach the trajectory of the transsexuals in the historical and social context. Sergipe, despite the conquests of the transsexuals, still has a framework of violence, which deserves study due to the number of deaths of this social segment. Thus, the violence suffered by transsexuals must be a problem to be discussed in the educational environment, through the history of struggle as an element of empowerment for these young people.

Anadolu’da Esnaf Dervişliği: Ahîlik

The religious orders are sufistic institutions voluntary doing activity in almost every part of the Islamic society. They made important contributions to the coverse of Islamic cultural heritage and teaching of its moral values. Thanks to the versatile activities, the Muslims had protected our religion in every part of life. One of these Sufustic institutions is the Ahi-Order which was established in Anatolia as an organization of tradesmen. The Ahi-Order Organization was generally associated with “Turkish Islamic guild” have a corporate identity at the period of Abbasid Khalif Nasser Lidinillah. Thus, it is believed that the Anatollian Ahi- Order developed as a “Turkish-Islamic guild” movement shaped by the “Turkish- Islamic guild Organization.” This movement has turned to a concious educated artisan dervish which settled at the center of economic life in Anatolia. The Anatolian Ahi-Order emerged in the last years of the Seljuk State. During the political vacuum that emerged with the occupation of Anatolia by the Mongols, the Ahis contributed to the restoration of public order with the local governments they formed. These experiences had positive reflections on the social sphere in the founding years of the Ottoman Empire. With this respect Ahis took on a mission that went beyond the structure of religious order in the economic life of Anatolia. Ahis who prepared the physical infrastructure necessary for the economic activities of their members had many mosques and madrasas built for worship and education. Thus, they supported scientific and sufustic education along with vocational education. The Ahis revived many professions which were weakened in Ottoman society. The Ahis, who did not allow unfair profit, black market and opportunism, increased an important values to the social life of Anatolia. In this manner, the risks of conflict between social segments have been eliminated with the economic inequalities in social life. They have been helped both its own members and needful people with many foundations and charity funds. By this means, they served as an exemplary dervish community in many areas such as production and economy, social solidarity, morality and education, protection of human and Islamic values in Anatolia. In this article, it has been examined that he historical and sufustic infrastructure of the artisan dervish, which was formed under the name of the Ahi-Order in Anatolia, and its contribution to the Anatolian people and wisdom.

Africa's Middle Classes

Since the early 21st century, the middle classes of the Global South became a focus of attention. However, a precarious minimum income was all it took to be considered middle class. But who exactly is middle class? As the term is applied, it should certainly not be confused with Marxist theories of class. It refers to a socio-economic status somewhere between the highest and lowest echelons of society. What constitutes middle class remains all too nebulous. This article casts doubt on the positive political and economic impact and role ascribed to the declared growth of African middle classes. It argues that middle classness is a construct, which stresses the continued vagueness and fragility of this social segment in societies and cautions of too optimistic assessments when it comes to its role.