Rhythms of debt: Lived temporalities of over-indebted young adults in Sweden

This paper investigates the relationship between debt, time and power by studying over-indebted young adults’ lived experiences of temporality. Empirically, the paper is based on recurrent interviews with 18 over-indebted young adults (aged 18–25) in Sweden and is analytically centred on three phases of indebtedness: entering the credit market, becoming over-indebted, and being over-indebted. The central argument of the paper is that everyday life in these phases is characterized by distinct temporalities which pertain to the dominant power relations that the young adults are primarily subjected to by actors in the consumer credit market, private debt collectors, and state-controlled enforcement.