TABLE OF CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

Caught in the Middle? On the Middle Class and its Relevance in the Contemporary Middle East (Karolin Sengebusch, Ali Sonay) 4–10

ANTI/THESIS

Thesis: The Misunderstandings about the Role of the Middle Classes (Rachid Ouaissa) 12–16

Anti-Thesis: The False Question of the Middle Class (Benoît Challand) 17–21

META

What is “Middle Class”? In search for an appropriate concept (Dieter Neubert) 23–35

CLOSE UP

Pierre Bourdieu: Transformation Societies and the Middle Class (Eva Barlösius) 37–44

FOCUS

Struggles of Distinction: Young Women Constructing Their Class Identity in Egypt’s Americanized Milieu (Sina Birkholz) 46–62

Public Education: A Route into Lebanon’s Middle Class in the 1960s and Early 1970s (Youssef Zbib) 63–73

The Politics of Social Action in Morocco (Shana Cohen) 74–82