Responding to the Multiple Crises of Financialized Capitalism

Abstract

Chapter 5 argues that in response to the financial crisis of 2008 mobilization around debt has spilled over from Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South/-east Asia towards North Africa and the North Atlantic, where conflicts around debt have increased dramatically since 2006. The chapter first elaborates the financial, economic, social and political features of the crisis and then argues that these features crucially shaped the field of contentious debt politics. I then analyze how this critical juncture was interpreted by established transnational movement networks and INGOs in the field of contentious debt politics as threats to debtor countries and affected citizens, but also as an opportunity to challenge neoliberalism and hegemonic debt politics in new geographical contexts.