Debt and personal indebtedness have become a global problem as consumption-driven economies have spread across the world. These days, outstanding consumer debt is a normal feature of many economies and for a large number of people, the source of great mental distress. However, an understanding of personal debt requires an understanding of the complex social systems that produce poverty. This book frames credit use as a social phenomenon, and explores the dynamic interplays between consumers who need credit and credit granting institutions. By drawing upon a range of international perspectives, this book sheds much needed light on the social and psychological factors that contribute to the growth of personal debt and its associated impact on wellbeing. In so doing, the book contributes to an understanding of why more and more people are in debt, why it is causing so much harm to so many people and exactly who is benefiting from what has become the world's number one growth industry.

Serdar M. Degirmencioglu is Professor of developmental and community psychology at Dogus University, Turkey. As a public scholar and outspoken advocate of children's rights in Turkey, he focuses on neglected subjects, often with action research. He has published books on for-profit higher education, militarism and martyrdom, and young people's participation. He is President of the European Community Psychology Association.

Carl Walker is Principal Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Brighton, UK. His research work in recent years has focused on the structural relationship between forms of social inequality and mental distress. He is a member of the British Psychological Society select committee for community psychology and coordinates a European Community Psychology Association Task Force on austerity politics and mental health across Europe.

Introduction; Serdar M. Degirmencioglu and Carl Walker
PART I: AUSTERITY, FINANCIALISATION AND SERIAL ASSET EXTRACTION: UNDERSTANDING INSTITUTIONALISED SUFFERING
1. Debt in the Everyday Lives of 100 Families Experiencing Urban Poverty in New Zealand; Darrin Hodgetts, Shiloh Groot, Kerry Chamberlain and Emily Garden
2. All Roads Lead to Finance: A Critical Overview of Debt in the U.S.; Daniel G Cooper and Bradley D Olson
3. The Impact of the 'Swiss Francs Loans' Crisis on Croatian Households; Petra Rodik
4. 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 Viano
5. The Experiences of Individuals in Debt During an Era of Extreme Austerity in Greece; Alexandre Papamichail and Petros Mizamidis
PART II: THE PUBLIC FACE OF THE DEBT INDUSTRY: DISCOURSE AND WELLBEING
6. Debt Dynamics in the UK and Beyond: How Propaganda Impedes Effective Political Action; Mark Burton
7. The Social Construction of 'Indebted Man': Economic Crisis, Discursive Violence and the Role of Mass Media in Italy; Adriano Zamperini and Marialuisa Menegatto
8. Chasing Happiness through Personal Debt: An Example of Neoliberal Influence in the Norwegian Society; Salman Turken, Erik Carlquist and Henry Allen
9. 'Financial Capability' Considered from a Community Psychology-informed Process in the North East of England; Jacqui Akhurst and Jacqui Lovell
10. The Indebted Individual: Dominant Discourses and Alternative Understandings of Personal Debt in the UK; Paul Hanna, Liz Cunningham and Carl Walker
PART III: POLITICAL HISTORIES OF PERSONAL DEBT: MANAGED DECLINE, THE DEBT INDUSTRY AND WELLBEING
11. Peer-to-Peer Lending As a New Profit Industry and Debt Trap; Ceylan Cizmeli and Mert Demir
12. Rethinking the Personal Debt Industry: Voices from Puerto Rico; Dolores S. Miranda Gierbolini and Ida de Jesús Collazo
13. Personal Debt in a Third World Latin American society; Douglas Marlon Arévalo Mira
14. The Personal Debt Industry: Racist debt practices and Pasifika peoples in New Zealand; Bruce Curtis and Cate Curtis
Conclusion