Cre-debt: Urban poverty, new credit economies and the global war on cash

People standing in line

PROJECT IS COMPLETED
Project period: February 2018 - March 2019

New fiscal policies and anti-cash campaigns are being rapidly introduced across the globe, and in many platforms debating changes in capitalist economies, this strident economic drive is referred to as ‘the global war on cash’. These forms of demonetization are eliminating cash transactions and replacing them with mobile and online payments, cryptocurrencies, credit and debit cards, and alternative economies of exchange.

Poised at this significant juncture in global economic history, this collaborative project explored the potential impact of this financial turn towards cashlessness on the currently cash-reliant urban poor in middle and high income countries. Focusing on financial debt (the condition of owing money), the project analysed the ways in which poor households across different cashless regimes, respond to the diminishing use of currency in modernising cities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The project was funded by:

Cre-debt: Urban poverty, new credit economies and the global war on cash has received funding from the Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS).

Project: Cre-debt: Urban poverty, new credit economies and the global war on cash
Principal investigator: Atreyee Sen 
Start: February 2018
End: March 2019