Narratives of Moral Order in M ichigan's Foreclosure Crisis

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7724970
AutoresAnna Jefferson (Michigan State University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2013
Volumen25
Número1
Páginas92-112
Fecha de publicación2013-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCity & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0893-0465 • E-ISSN: 1548-744X
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ciso.12006
OpenAlexW2166710683
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas18
Referencias citadas26

In the United States foreclosure crisis since 2007, millions of homeowners have strived but failed to hold onto homeownership. This crisis threatens to unsettle the myth of the A merican dream and deep‐seated cultural beliefs about the self as a moral, political, and financial subject. On the whole, mainstream narratives blame homeowners for their predicaments or at least hold them responsible for the consequences of the housing bust. This article examines how homeowners, housing professionals, and activists in M ichigan confront narratives of blame and flawed foreclosure prevention programs. M ichigan has been pivotal in the formation of beliefs about the A merican dream, evidenced in the blue‐collar middle class, as well as being emblematic of deindustrialization and the foreclosure crisis. Confronting a multi‐layered crisis, homeowners, housing professionals, and activists in M ichigan produce narratives of suicide, walking away, or strategically defaulting on the mortgage. These narratives present moral critiques of lenders, enact and challenge tropes of blame, and imagine ways to recapture (albeit constrained) agency

Blame · Criminology · Deindustrialization · Economics · Economy · Financial crisis · Foreclosure · Keynesian economics · Mainstream · Middle class · Narrative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Psychology · Social Psychology