Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>Many countries in sub‐Saharan Africa are moving toward middle‐income status at the same time as their middle classes are growing in size and influence. This article explores the role of middle‐class economic strategies in bringing about structural changes in the organization of Tanzania's rural economy. Middle‐class income strategies oriented toward a mediated relationship with agricultural production depend on the enclosure of productive resources on which rent can be levied and on specific styles of cultural performance. The growth of the middle classes in Tanzania has important implications for inequality, but the extension of middle‐class cultural styles is not solely concerned with differentiation. It is part of a wider cultural shift in everyday social practice in Tanzania</jats:italic>.</jats:p>