Dettes de survie versus dettes d’accumulation : la financiarisation au prisme des inégalités sociales en Suisse

Combining two approaches to debt, this article sheds light on the role of debt in the widening of socioeconomic inequalities in the contemporary Swiss context. The plural approach highlights the unequal distribution of debts of various types and forms in the population. Because of these inequalities of access, certain categories of the population are confined to ?problematic? survival debts, whereas ?positive? debts concern the most privileged fringes, who use them as a lever for accumulation. The article then looks at the consequences of debt enforcement where debt is entirely homogeneous and highly punitive, with strong negative consequences for the most precarious segments of the population. While financialization has meant that the interdependence of human activities is increasingly based on financial relations, the centrality of debt and its sacralization contribute to fueling and freezing social hierarchies in Switzerland.