An understanding of personal debt requires an understanding of the complex social systems that produce poverty. By drawing upon international perspectives, this book investigates why more and more people are in debt, why it is causing so much mental distress and exactly who is benefiting from what has become the world's number one growth industry.

Introduction; Serdar M. Degirmencioglu and Carl WalkerPART I: AUSTERITY, FINANCIALISATION AND SERIAL ASSET EXTRACTION: UNDERSTANDING INSTITUTIONALISED SUFFERING1. Debt in the Everyday Lives of 100 Families Experiencing Urban Poverty in New Zealand; Darrin Hodgetts, Shiloh Groot, Kerry Chamberlain and Emily Garden2. All Roads Lead to Finance: A Critical Overview of Debt in the U.S.; Daniel G Cooper and Bradley D Olson3. The Impact of the 'Swiss Francs Loans' Crisis on Croatian Households; Petra Rodik4. The Consequences of Evictions in Spain; Aïda Ballester, Moisés Carmona, Rubén David Fernández, Ana González, Johanna Jiménez, Elies Martínez, Irene Moulas, Laura Peret, and Carolina Viano5. The Experiences of Individuals in Debt During an Era of Extreme Austerity in Greece; Alexandre Papamichail and Petros MizamidisPART II: THE PUBLIC FACE OF THE DEBT INDUSTRY: DISCOURSE AND WELLBEING6. Debt Dynamics in the UK and Beyond: How Propaganda Impedes Effective Political Action; Mark Burton7. The Social Construction of 'Indebted Man': Economic Crisis, Discursive Violence and the Role of Mass Media in Italy; Adriano Zamperini and Marialuisa Menegatto8. Chasing Happiness through Personal Debt: An Example of Neoliberal Influence in the Norwegian Society; Salman Turken, Erik Carlquist and Henry Allen9. 'Financial Capability' Considered from a Community Psychology-informed Process in the North East of England; Jacqui Akhurst and Jacqui Lovell10. The Indebted Individual: Dominant Discourses and Alternative Understandings of Personal Debt in the UK; Paul Hanna, Liz Cunningham and Carl WalkerPART III: POLITICAL HISTORIES OF PERSONAL DEBT: MANAGED DECLINE, THE DEBT INDUSTRY AND WELLBEING11. Peer-to-Peer Lending As a New Profit Industry and Debt Trap; Ceylan Cizmeli and Mert Demir12. Rethinking the Personal Debt Industry: Voices from Puerto Rico; Dolores S. Miranda Gierbolini and Ida de Jesús Collazo13. Personal Debt in a Third World Latin American society; Douglas Marlon Arévalo Mira14. The Personal Debt Industry: Racist debt practices and Pasifika peoples in New Zealand; Bruce Curtis and Cate CurtisConclusion