Financialization and morality: Indebtedness under a new regime of "need" in Turkey

This thesis studies the overgrowth of household indebtedness, which has gained enormous speed and intensity through the rapid introduction of consumer credits in 2000s in Turkey, and the moral discourses that promote and accompany this encounter. Through the promotion of credit mechanism as a way of economic self-sustenance by the state, Turkey has been hauled into the problem of household indebtedness for the first time under the AKP government. In line with a redefinition of the engagement with modern finance, the moral norms against finance and especially the use of credit have been reformulated by the strategic utilization of the notion of need in the financialization process. In this thesis, I am concerned with both the collaboration between the state and financial markets in relation to the promotion and practical application of the credit mechanism as well as the discursive investments buried in the concept of need. Therefore, first, I focus on the shifts in the social policy regime and in the attitude towards financial development by studying AKP's economic development project publicized in 2002. Second, I discuss the reformulation of the credit mechanism and the Islamic ban on interest by the Directorate of Religious Affairs in light of the current concerns of economic well-being and needs of subjects. Lastly, I systematically analyze the personal narrations about the credit mechanism from specific web forums that I had public access in order to explain how the concept of 'need' is articulated in a subjective manner. I argue that with the strategic utilization of the notion of need in the financialization process of the Turkish economy, there has emerged a new moral discourse that mainly refers to the urgency of economic needs and family structure, and paves the way for a harmonious encounter with modern financial instruments, which even bypasses the religious anxieties around the use of credits.