Consumer Debt and Social Exclusion in Europe

This study fills a vital gap in the current literature on the effects of the financial and economic crisis, and features detailed reports from six European countries which form the empirical background for five analyses of different aspects of the social inclusion-exclusion dichotomy through over-indebtedness in Europe since 2008. The account shows how the current design of the consumer credit and mortgage system in Europe has helped to produce individual over-indebtedness while disregarding the consequential danger of social exclusion.

This book analyses the dichotomy between the goal of social inclusion and the effect of social exclusion through over-indebtedness since 2008 in Europe. Filling a vital gap in the current literature on the effects of the financial and economic crisis, this volume puts into context academic discussion with the real-life dimension of over-indebtedness. Reports from six European countries provide socio-economic and legal information on over-indebtedness as well as the regulatory and judicial responses to the problems entailed by over-indebtedness. They form the empirical background for five analyses of different aspects of the inclusion-exclusion dichotomy. It becomes clear that in the context of credit expansion, individual over-indebtedness has turned into a social issue, which the current design of the consumer credit and mortgage system in Europe has helped to produce while disregarding the consequential danger of social exclusion.