12

‪This article investigates the strategies employed by three households in a provincial town in western Greece as they navigate the ongoing polycrisis. The analysis draws on a relational and synthetic understanding of the middle class, considering both the diverse definitions mobilized by social actors and the broader structural power relations that inform these definitions. Urban households articulate different criteria for middle-class identification, primarely homeownership, employment in the civil service, and consumption practices. Our findings suggest that consumption, particularly the display of purchasing power, functions as a final means of claiming membership in the middle class when other avenues of belonging have been exhausted. In this context, purchasing power is understood not solely as an economic indicator, but also as an element of individual and collective identity undergoing reconfigurations during a period of socio-economic restructuring. Furthermore, the effort to preserve social status compels households to align themselves with contemporary global transformations that, often, tend to exacerbate their socio-economic vulnerability.‪