@article{fdi:010087640,
  title = {{T}he socio-economy of debt : revisiting debt bondage in times of financialization},
  author = {{G}u{\'e}rin, {I}sabelle and {V}enkatasubramanian, {G}.},
  editor = {},
  language = {{ENG}},
  abstract = {{T}his paper proposes the concept of the 'socio-economy of debt' to explore the ambivalence of debt, its multiple facets and its capacity to exploit, protect or emancipate. {T}his socio-economy of debt conceives of debt as a material transaction (defined in terms of prices, modalities of repayment, and collaterals), as well as a power relationship (inseparable from an overall set of interdependencies, protection and social differentiation) and as a social and moral experience (imbued with subjectivities, felt-obligations and also aspirations). {T}his framework sheds a new light on the issue of "debt bondage", applied to seasonal migrants from {S}outh-{I}ndia. {T}hese workers are tied to their employer through a wage advance while enjoying widened access to market debts. {P}aradoxi-cally, such widened choice has reinforced their dependence on their employers and other forms of interpersonal debt. {T}hese various forms of debt, both market and interpersonal, bring about various forms of exploitation, and the dispossession of time and bodies. {B}ut these debts equally allow those workers to break with the past and imagine a new future, partially liberated not from caste hierarchies but from their local forms of expression. {T}hey offer a source of hope, confidence and courage to act. {I}t also allows some debtors to make investments and improve their lives. {W}ithin this analytical framework, it is not the market or non-market-based quality of a debt that explain its emancipatory or alienating potential, as long argued by economic anthropology, but how a particular debt bond is articulated with other forms of interdependence and protection.},
  keywords = {{D}ebt ; {E}mancipation ; {P}rotection ; {I}ndia ; {U}nfree labour market ; {INDE} ; {TAMIL} {NADU}},
  booktitle = {},
  journal = {{G}eoforum},
  volume = {137},
  numero = {},
  pages = {174--184},
  ISSN = {0016-7185},
  year = {2022},
  DOI = {10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.05.020},
  URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010087640},
}