Dynamics of the Urban Middle Class, Consumerism, Social Mobility and New Identities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37899/mjds.v2i3.203Keywords:
Middle Class , Consumerism , Social Mobility IdentityAbstract
The growth of the urban middle class in Indonesia has become one of the most significant social phenomena in the past two decades, reshaping lifestyles, consumption patterns, and identity formation. This study critically examines the dynamics of the urban middle class through three interrelated dimensions: consumerism, social mobility, and the construction of new identities. Using a quantitative survey method with 400 respondents from five major Indonesian cities, data were collected through a Likert-scale questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and multiple linear regression. The results show that consumerism is strongly embedded in middle-class practices, with high preferences for branded goods and lifestyle consumption, functioning as both status symbols and markers of modernity. Social mobility is primarily associated with education, which respondents consider the most important factor in achieving upward mobility, although structural limitations of the labor market often constrain these aspirations. Identity construction is increasingly mediated by digital platforms, where social media serves as a space for professional representation and urban belonging. Regression analysis reveals that consumerism (β = 0.41) has a stronger influence than social mobility (β = 0.36) in shaping new identities, indicating that lifestyle symbols play a more central role than structural achievements. Overall, the study concludes that the urban middle class embodies both cosmopolitan modernity and structural vulnerability, making it a socially and culturally contested category rather than merely an economic stratum.
References
Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. University of Minnesota Press.
Baym, N. K. (2015). Personal connections in the digital age. Polity.
Boterman, W., & Van Gent, W. (2023). Making the Middle-Class City. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US. https://doi. org/10, 1057, 978-1.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). Greenwood.
Castells, M. (2000). The rise of the network society. Wiley-Blackwell.
Cover, R. (2021). Identity in the disrupted time of COVID-19: Performativity, crisis, mobility and ethics. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 4(1), 100175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2021.100175
Dwianto, R. D., & Rahardini, A. (2021). Indonesian middle class as cultural intermediaries,‘running’for trendy urban lifestyle. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 42(4), 837-844. https://doi.org/10.34044/j.kjss.2021.42.4.18
Ferreira, F. H., Messina, J., Rigolini, J., López-Calva, L. F., Lugo, M. A., Vakis, R., & Ló, L. F. (2012). Economic mobility and the rise of the Latin American middle class. World Bank Publications.
Han, N. R. (2024). Ethical consumption as fetishism: unmasking capitalist ideologies, social distinctions, and the educational imperative. Journal of Advertising Education, 28(2), 115-136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10980482241285003
Hidayah, S. N. (2021). Pesantren for middle-class muslims in Indonesia (between religious commodification and pious neoliberalism). Qudus International Journal of Islamic Studies, 9(1), 209-244. http://dx.doi.org/10.21043/qijis.v9i1.7641
Mietzner, M., & Aspinall, E. (2013). Indonesia’s democratic paradox: Between elite democracy and class politics. Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 49(2), 139–157. https:///doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2019.1690412
Miladinov, G. (2023). Impacts of population growth and economic development on food security in low-income and middle-income countries. Frontiers in human dynamics, 5, 1121662. https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2023.1121662
Nilan, P., & Utari, P. (2008). Global youth, hybrid identities and the Indonesian middle class. Young, 16(4), 329–347. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203030523
Parvatiyar, A., & Sheth, J. N. (2023). Confronting the deep problem of consumption: Why individual responsibility for mindful consumption matters. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 57(2), 785-820. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1111/joca.12534
Pepinsky, T., Slater, D., & Vreeland, J. R. (2021). Middle-class vulnerability and political behavior in emerging economies. Comparative Politics, 53(2), 213–235.
Prester, J., Cecez-Kecmanovic, D., & Schlagwein, D. (2023). Toward a theory of identity performance in unsettled digital work: The becoming of ‘digital nomads’. Journal of Information Technology, 38(4), 442-458. https://doi.org/10.1177/02683962231196310
Priyatna, E. S. (2024). A cultural history of indonesian urban soundscape: locating urban experiences within the urban soundscape of Indonesia (Doctoral dissertation, University of Sussex).
Rokka, J., Ulver, S., Arnould, E., Thompson, C. J., Crockett, D., & Weinberger, M. (2023). Identity and Consumption. Consumer Culture Theory, 15-32.
Rosida, I., Zahra, F. A., Tuzzahrah, F., & Azzahra, S. (2023). Flexing culture in the age of social media: From social recognition to self-satisfaction. Simulacra, 6(2), 193-208. https://doi.org/10.21107/sml.v6i2.20716
Rössel, J., & Schroedter, J. H. (2015). Cosmopolitan cultural consumption: Preferences and practices in a heterogenous, urban population in Switzerland. Poetics, 50, 80-95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2015.02.009
Sahin, O., & Nasir, S. (2022). The effects of status consumption and conspicuous consumption on perceived symbolic status. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 30(1), 68-85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10696679.2021.1888649
Shawki, N., & Hunter, G. L. (2022). Building solidarity in the slow food movement. The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 28(2), 75-93.
Suyanto, B., Sugihartati, R., Hidayat, M., & Subiakto, H. (2019). Global vs. local: lifestyle and consumption behaviour among the urban middle class in East Java, Indonesia. South East Asia Research, 27(4), 398-417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0967828X.2019.1703557
Swita, I., & Ayu, F. (2025). Study of Urban Community Consumption Behavior from a Socioeconomic Perspective. Journal of Social, Culture & Humanitarian Research, 1(1), 19-27.
Utomo, I., & McDonald, P. (2016). Indonesia’s middle class families: Marriage, work and care. Asian Population Studies, 12(2), 109–129.
Utomo, I., & McDonald, P. (2016). Indonesia’s middle class families: Marriage, work and care. Asian Population Studies, 12(2), 109–129.
Veblen, T. (2007). The theory of the leisure class. Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1899).
Veblen, T. (2007). The theory of the leisure class. Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1899).
