Moral alchemy of credit cards: Reassembling debt and the value of financialization in Indonesia

This study examines the moral and value-based framing of credit cards as an important tool of Indonesian financial perceptions and practices. By exploring the concept of ‘moral alchemy’, the transformation of cultural values and ethical perspectives on debt and credit is embodied and materialized in credit cards. Using a dynamic mix of multisite ethnography and netnography, I examine how credit card communities in Indonesia are reshaping the use of credit cards from a symbol of risky privileges to tools for financial empowerment. This research combines three areas of interest: Cultural economics, sociocultural perspectives on ethics, and value theory to provide a comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon. My findings show how consumers who are part of the largest community of credit card users in Indonesia actively reshape their moral beliefs to adapt to new financial practices, illustrating the complex interaction between global financial products and local cultural contexts. Such communities represent more than just the adoption of new financial instruments. They also represent a fundamental shift in how consumers and businesses interact with modern financial instruments. This research makes a valuable contribution to the growing literature on financial and economic practices based on socio-cultural perspectives and offers interesting insights into how innovative financial products are adopted and reinterpreted based on moral preferences and values that enable financial returns.