This book explores the dynamics of the "middle-class global rebellion" born of the frustration at declining living standards. Addressing narratives constructed by different social and political agents and groups, it examines contexts of social crisis in Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, understanding the middle classes as a set of complex and conflicting political relationships. With attention to the manner in which people create "situated habits", consolidating new expectations and desires through a concrete biography, it analyzes continuities and changes in classed self-perceptions based on performative use. With new perspectives, including historical and intersectional approaches, Middle Class Identities and Social Crisis transcends disciplinary boundaries to explore the hybridity of research methods and techniques and challenge established analytical frameworks. It will therefore appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in class and questions of class identity.

Argentina is one of the most closely watched nations in the world, largely because if its failure to live up to grand expectations and its recent financial and social meltdown. On Argentina and the Southern Cone contextualizes the country's position within the currents of globalization by considering the ways that globalization is impacting contemporary Argentina - via regional trading blocs, migration, emerging transnational border regions, and the interests of multinational financial institutions and national elites. Argentina has long imagined itself as a European nation, qualitatively different from its Latin American neighbours. But recent events are forcing it to change its perception of itself. As the size of Argentina's transnational community continues to swell, and as the nation continues its financial and social implosion, Argentinians are being forced to re-imagine the nation as Latin American, replete with the histories and problems of that part of the world. Students of Argentinian and world history will find this an insightful and informative companion.