Jürgen Schraten is a sociologist at the University of Giessen. Currently he acts as principal investigator of a research project comparing the role of contracts and property in the financialized economies of South Africa, the United States and Germany. His recent publications include ‘Habits of Austerity, Financialization and New Ways of Dealing with Money’, in Keith Hart (ed.), Economy For and Against Democracy, (Berghahn, 2015).

“The book—not an examination of credit and debt, but an account of the contemporary construction of a market—is an important contribution to the study of relationships between credit and debt in an unequal society.” • Africa Today“I think the book is marvelous, with a fine organization building from meticulous literary scholarship to a broad critique of applying market ideas to the organization of credit.” • Keith Hart, University of Pretoria

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsNotes on TransliterationList of AbbreviationsIntroductionChapter 1. Borrowing in the South African Consumer Credit MarketChapter 2. Raising the Storm of a Free Consumer Credit MarketChapter 3. The Institutional Framework: Implementing a Consumer Credit MarketChapter 4. Legislator’s Reactions to the Consumer Credit Market Crisis 2012-2014Chapter 5. The Model of Rational Action in the South African Consumer Credit MarketConclusion: The Missed Options of the South African Consumer Credit MarketReferencesIndex