Class War on Wonga
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21157629 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Derrick Chong (0000-0002-2721-5306, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 236-242 |
| Publication date | 2015-08-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Visual Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1470-4129 • E-ISSN: 1741-2994 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1470412915592872 |
| OpenAlex | W2410652352 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
UK activist group Class War’s ‘WAR ON wonga’ campaign is viewed via Boltanski and Chiapello’s critique of capitalism – The New Spirit of Capitalism (2005[1999]) – namely as a form of social critique. Wonga has emerged as the UK’s leading payday loan company since it was founded in 2007, and should be recognized as a product of the culture of financialization. Class War’s campaign is a response to the linkage between inequality and entrepreneurial capitalism. As an example of entrepreneurial capitalism, the possibility of free enterprise, Wonga’s self-description as an ‘innovative digital company’ makes directly wealthy the founding entrepreneurs and their current venture capital partners. Yet the economic success of Wonga also represents a growing inequality in a society of unprecedented wealth. Given the UK perspective, the long shadow of Thatcher informs this essay, as does the criminalization of debt during the Victorian period
Capitalism · Class conflict · Debt · Economic history · Economics · Financialization · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · History · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Political Economy and Marxism · Finance
| Highly cited | No |
|---|