International Journal of Sociology Civics Research

Restoring Strategic Significance of Middle Class in Arab World: From ‘Economic Management’ to ‘Meaning Engineering’

Mohammed Senoussi¹, El Habib Choubani², Mohamed Buheji³

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Abstract

The crisis of the middle class in the Arab world cannot be reduced to declining purchasing power or rising living costs; it is fundamentally a crisis of meaning. As Senoussi (2026) powerfully articulates, "What is happening is deeper than that: a silent structural erosion that affects the meaning that makes this class possible in the first place." This paper proposes a conceptual framework—the "Makin-Inspiration Economy" model—to shift policy intervention from quantitative economic management to qualitative meaning engineering. We argue that the erosion of the middle class is characterized by three "meaning gaps": the breakdown of meritocracy (effort-to-reward), the fragility of stability, and the loss of a navigable future. These gaps manifest concretely in two contemporary challenges: the growing NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) phenomenon among educated youth, which represents the intergenerational transmission of the meritocracy gap; and the devastating impact of inflation on middle-class purchasing power, which attacks the stability gap by rendering the future unpredictable. Drawing on the principles of the "Inspiration Economy" and informed by historical scholarship on the formation of the Arab middle class, this paper posits that restoring the middle class requires rebuilding trust in its historical role as a strategic agent of change. A comprehensive mapping of policy interventions addresses each meaning gap through deep diagnosis, meaning-centered design, and strategic impact assessment. We conclude that true reform lies not merely in redistributing wealth, but in re-empowering the middle class to reclaim its leadership function in shaping the future of society and state.

Keywords: Meaning GapMiddle ClassInspiration EconomyMakin ModelStrategic SignificanceArab World

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Licensed under CC BY 4.0.