Descent into financial difficulty and the role of consumer credit

About the chapter: This chapter considers households’ vulnerability to financial difficulties in the context following the financial crisis of the late 2000s and early 2010s. In particular, it explores the important, if nuanced, role of consumer in vulnerability to financial difficulties and concludes by identifying roles for industry and government in helping to mitigate the effects of consumer credit at the individual level of the consumer and stem its escalation.

About the volume: Consumer vulnerability is of growing importance as a research topic for those exploring wellbeing. This book provides space to critically engage with the conditions, contexts and characteristics of consumer vulnerability, which affect how people experience and respond to the marketplace and vice versa.

Focussing on substantive, ethical, social and methodological issues, this book brings together key researchers in the field and practitioners who work with vulnerability on a daily basis. Organised into 4 sections, it considers consumer vulnerability and key life stages, health and wellbeing, poverty, and exclusion. Methodologically the chapters draw on qualitative research, employing a variety of methods from interview, to the use of poetry, film and other cultural artefacts.

This book will be of interest to marketing and consumer research scholars and students and also to researchers in other disciplines including sociology, public policy and anthropology, and practitioners, policy makers and charitable organisations working with vulnerable groups.