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Kopper, Moisés (2020)History of Political Economy 52(3), pp. 561-587.ABSTRACTBetween 2004 and 2013, an array of social policies converted Brazil into an international showcase of economic growth and income redistribution. Economists, policymakers, politicians and marketers heralded the end of endemic poverty and the incorporation of millions into a newly defined “middle class.” This article unpacks this story of inclusionary development by considering the controversies surrounding the production and circulation of large numbers, and how such controversies sustained the technopolitics of Brazil’s “new middle class.” I draw on multisited ethnography conducted in Washington, DC, Brasilia, and São Paulo among think tanks, governmental sectors, the World Bank, and market research institutes. By foregrounding the workings of a transnational network of experts, I chronicle how the middle-class language traversed circuits of science, policymaking, and market research. The article contends that methodological breakthroughs—including microeconometric counterfactuals and market ethnography—become salient fixtures in the public appraisal of inequality and in the creation of national political futures.EXTRACT"Much like bits in an assemblage, the authors write, facts are “separable pieces of knowledge that can be abstracted from their production context” and “used again and again, by other communities or for other purposes” (Howlett and Morgan 2011: xv). These malleable snippets become productive by being repurposed in other parts of the assemblage. In my research, I collected over 2,200 news articles displaying the term “new middle class” as they sprouted in Brazil’s ten most preeminent newspapers between 2008 and 2014.18 These reports substantiated and built on bits and pieces of Neri’s politics of large numbers while creating their own stories with numbers, interviews, and case studies (Desrosières 1998). As the “new middle class” language slipped from science into politics and markets, it left the realm of taxonomy to become enmeshed with the invention of a new image of national development. News outlets became pivotal material conduits in the reconstruction of statistics as both governmental achievement and consumer knowledge research, I collected over 2,200 news articles displaying the term “new middle class” as they sprouted in Brazil’s ten most preeminent newspapers between 2008 and 2014.18 These reports substantiated and built on bits and pieces of Neri’s politics of large numbers while creating their own stories with numbers, interviews, and case studies (Desrosières 1998). As the “new middle class” language slipped from science into politics and markets, it left the realm of taxonomy to become enmeshed with the invention of a new image of national development. News outlets became pivotal material conduits in the reconstruction of statistics as both governmental achievement and consumer knowledge." (p. 577)