A positional and representational analysis of consumption. Households when facing debt and credit

Abstract

Based on Doise’s conceptualisation of social representations as organising principles, this project studied the organisation and the content of the social representation of consumption in order to understand people's financial behaviour when dealing with credit and loans. In the framework of an extensive survey concerning the impact of specific family structures and the processes involved in becoming indebted, 50 semi-structured interviews were conducted regarding consumption, debt and family budget management. Three categories of people with various social characteristics (different social status, area of residence) and with different degrees of indebtedness were interviewed. Different characteristics of the financial arrangements of households were measured. Multidimensional scaling on these data showed a specific configuration revealing (i) three factors of social differentiation related to dimensions such as wealth, social use of loans and savings, (ii) four sub-groups of subjects according to their position on these factors and their specific use of savings and loans. The analysis of the subjects’ positions in this space led to a typology of households. Finally, the subjects’ positions and representations were analysed simultaneously in order to link the social categories of subjects with representational variations.