I just felt responsible for my debts: debt stigma and class(ificatory) exploitation

The chapter examines how the recent intensification of stigma and morality surrounding financial failure acts a ‘classificatory system’ (Tyler, 2015). I contribute to emergent form of class analysis that observe how neoliberal forms of governance utilise stigma to classify certain groups of people as shameful to justify specific political and economic objectives. This chapter is original in observing these strategies in the context of debt and default. The analysis is divided into three sections. First, I detail how a discourse of individual financial responsibility was mobilised by certain politicians, neoliberal think tanks and the media to (I) justify austerity policies and (II) to advocate the morally correct solution for defaulting individuals. Second, I examine how credit scoring classificatory systems are the mechanism through which stigmatising discourses filter down into people’s daily lives and are enforced in moments of default and reclassification. Third, the chapter re-analyses 21 testimonies from people who defaulted on their agreements, to highlight the personal costs of debt stigma. Utilising a thematic analysis, I detail how participants experience stigmatising discourses and creditor practices as fear and shame which guide them towards taking ‘responsibility’ for their debt. I conclude by arguing that such practices shield credit markets from any systematic structural reform and maintain defaulting individuals as subjects of economic value.