Consumer De-responsibilization: Changing Notions of Consumer Subjects and Market Moralities after the 2008-9 Financial Crisis
Informazioni aggiuntive
Autori
Tipo
Contributo in atti di conferenza
Anno
2020
Lingua
Inglese
Abstract
A growing body of literature discusses consumer responsibilization
under neoliberalism. However, after the 2008-9 financial crisis, countertendencies
emerged, which have not been sufficiently theorized. Analyzing post-crisis mortgage
regulatory discourse in the UK, Hungary and Switzerland, this paper examines these
countertendencies and proposes the concept of ‘consumer de-responsibilization’,
referring to the shift of responsibility from consumers to the state and financial
institutions. We argue that de-responsibilization was underpinned by shifts in
conceptions of the consumer subject (from the entrepreneurial to the limited rationality
consumer) and in moral ideas of the market (from a deontological to a consequentialist
morality). De-responsibilization operates through a top-down, sovereign form of
governance. It does not replace, yet constrains the fields of neoliberal governmentality
and responsibilization, constituting a hybrid governance system of ‘controlled freedom’.
We situate de-responsibilization as a new modality of neoliberalism, which safeguards
markets by excluding borrowers that may not be profitable enough.
Atti di conferenza
Research in Consumer Culture Theory, Vol. 3
Mese
giugno
Editore
Consumer Culture Theory Consortium
Pagina inizio
153
Pagina fine
156
Nome conferenza
Consumer Culture Theory Conference 2020: Interrogating Social Imaginaries
Luogo conferenza
Leicester, United Kingdom
Data conferenza
26-28 June 2020
ISBN
9788794006033
Parole chiave
Credit, Consumer policy, Financial markets, Moralities, Responsibilization
