Climbing the ladder to safety: A qualitative investigation of social mobility in Brazil

This article investigates lived experiences of change in socioeconomic status in the Brazilian urban context of the early 21st century. Poverty reduction policies coupled with a consumption boom in the late 2000s prompted the controversial announcement of the rise of a ‘new middle class’ in Brazil. Drawing from in-depth interviews with residents of the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region who lived through that boom, we show the specificities of social mobility as an everyday experience in a megacity marked by inequalities. Our analysis explores three types of mobility that emerged from participants’ descriptions of their habits and life stories – financial, geographic, and educational. We propose an understanding of social mobility that considers the interplay between these different dimensions as perceived by those who have experienced some degree of improvement in their standard of living since childhood and compared to their parents. The paper shows the Brazilian ‘new middle class’ is less a complete status transition than an ambiguous experience shaped by family support and commitments, urban territories and stigmatization, and gains in forms of cultural capital that may not be immediately or sufficiently convertible into economic capital.