The personal life of debt: Coercion, subjectivity and inequality in Britain

A CHASM seminar with Dr Ryan Davey, University of Cardiff

As the cost of living rises, British households face unprecedented levels of debt. But many commentators characterise those who stash away envelopes, leave telephones ringing, or hide from debt collectors as irresponsible.

This online seminar will outline a new book that is the first full-length ethnography of debt problems in Britain. It uses long-term fieldwork on a southern English housing estate to give a sensitive retelling of the everyday lives of indebted people.

It argues that the inequalities of debt go beyond economic questions to include the way state coercion hinders people’s efforts to define what they truly value. Indeed, from finance to housing and even parenthood, the potential for dispossession has become a pervasive method of power that strikes at the heart of personal life.

Bio: Ryan Davey is a lecturer in social sciences at Cardiff University, working across anthropology and sociology. His work explores debt, class inequality, power, stigma, personal life, gender, sexuality and subjectivity, using ethnographic methods.