Abstract
Debt is at once a personal, relational and structural issue. Debt, as discussed in this chapter, involves debtors (who are stigmatised in society) and entrepreneurial fringe lenders. Concerns regarding debt, inequitable profiteering and associated servitude have taxed the intellectual capacity of societies for millennia. Debt has proved to be a site for struggle between rich and poor grounded in debates regarding interest, the seizure of persons and property, rebellion and amnesty (Graeber, 2011). Societies as far back as 2400 BC have addressed the social instabilities that stem from exploitative lending practices, wealth concentration for some lenders and deteriorations in living conditions and debt slavery for others through the introduction of jubilee or debt forgiveness periods (Hammurabi Code, 1762 BC). Forgiving “the poor” for the parasitic actions of lenders is something that barely registers as a realistic option today. Reluctance to forgive such debt is, in part, the product of a misguided morality, which binds debtors and dictates that they should pay “their” debts despite the predatory actions of lenders. It also reminds us that debt is seen differently by debtors and lenders. For the former it is often about survival and for the latter profit. Yet we almost exclusively hear the lenders’ perspectives. This chapter challenges such symbolic power by engaging the perspective of debtors in New Zealand.
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© 2015 Darrin Hodgetts, Emily Garden, Shiloh Groot and Kerry Chamberlain
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Hodgetts, D., Garden, E., Groot, S., Chamberlain, K. (2015). Debt in the Everyday Lives of 100 Families Experiencing Urban Poverty in New Zealand. In: Değirmencioğlu, S.M., Walker, C. (eds) Social and Psychological Dimensions of Personal Debt and the Debt Industry. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137407795_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137407795_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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