The article analyses, from the perspective of class studies in Sociology, the argument of Brazilian economists about the emergence of a new middle class. To achieve this task, the paper brings the debate conducted in economics, in which class is defined by income, as well as the debate of the Sociology of Stratification, according to its different theoretical frameworks. Using data from PNADs 2002 and 2009, it argues that the changes in the classes structure were not significant to support the idea of existence of a new class, neither that there was a growth in the traditional middle class.
Middle Class; Inequalities; Stratification; Income; Consumption
