Authors

Discussion

In different socio-historical contexts, ‘boundary work’ is essential for the production of class subjectivities. People employ various criteria to draw boundaries between themselves and their class Others. Based on ethnographic research on the lived experience of middle classness in post-socialist Romania, I argue that a complementary type of work commands attention. I call it ‘grounding work’. This is less about distinguishing the middle class from their class Others and more about professing the very existence of the middle class. First, ‘grounding work’ operates with an understanding of ethics as the most solid foundation that can possibly exist. Then it involves the proclamation of ethical conduct as the preserve of the middle class (e.g. involvement in charity work, volunteering, composting, anti-corruption protests). ‘Grounding work’ stabilises the middle class. Further, it implies a redefinition of the middle. This is no longer a position on a vertical axis, between an ‘above’ and a ‘below’. The middle is what lies around the centre of a horizontal axis, indexing cultural-moral solidity, and not socio-economic fragility. ‘Grounding work’ turns the middle class into the solid foundation of the society, adding, thus, more weight to its existence. Especially since the 2010s, when the socio-economic fragility—either real or imagined— has clouded the subjective perception of class position, the middle class has engaged even more energetically in ‘grounding work’.