Table of Contents

The Dark Side of Prosperity

About the Author

Mark Horsley lectures in the Department of Law and Social Science at the University of Cumbria, UK.

Reviews

’In The Dark Side of Prosperity, Mark Horsley offers a detailed theoretical and empirical analysis of the debt industry and the lives of those who suffer under the burden of consumer debt. The book is written in a lively, imaginative and accessible style and yet still manages to remain theoretically rigorous. This is an outstanding contribution, and it is destined to become the standard text against which all other sociological accounts of the debt industry will be measured.’ Simon Winlow, Teesside University, UK ’This study of the cultural and subjective motivations of debtors, and the history and economics of the growth in consumer credit, offers a new slant to understanding consumer debt markets. We discover that the driving forces behind the recent upsurge of consumer indebtedness are the cyclical availability of credit and pervasive individualistic narratives about aspiration and the enjoyment society.’ Colin Webster, Leeds Beckett University, UK