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  4. Consumer de-responsibilization: changing notions of consumer subjects and market moralities after the 2008–9 financial crisis
 
research article

Consumer de-responsibilization: changing notions of consumer subjects and market moralities after the 2008–9 financial crisis

Pellandini-Simányi, Léna
•
Conte, Leonardo  orcid-logo
January 1, 2021
Consumption, Markets & Culture

A growing body of literature discusses consumer responsibilization under neoliberalism. However, after the 2008–9 financial crisis, countertendencies emerged, which have not been sufficiently theorised. Analysing post-crisis mortgage regulatory discourse in the United Kingdom, Hungary and Switzerland, this paper examines these countertendencies and proposes the concept of “consumer de-responsibilization,” referring to the shift of responsibility from consumers to the state and financial institutions. We argue that de-responsibilization was underpinned by shifts in conceptions of the consumer subject (from the entrepreneurial to the limited rationality consumer) and in moral ideas of the market (from a deontological to a consequentialist morality). De-responsibilization operates through a top-down, sovereign form of governance. It does not replace, yet constrains the fields of neoliberal governmentality and responsibilization, constituting a hybrid governance system of “controlled freedom.” We situate de-responsibilization as a new modality of neoliberalism, which safeguards markets by excluding borrowers that may not be profitable enough.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
research article
DOI
10.1080/10253866.2020.1781099
Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85087376608

Author(s)
Pellandini-Simányi, Léna

Università della Svizzera italiana

Conte, Leonardo  orcid-logo

EPFL

Date Issued

2021-01-01

Published in
Consumption, Markets & Culture
Volume

24

Issue

3

Start page

280

End page

305

Subjects

consumer policy

•

Credit

•

governmentality

•

moralities

•

mortgage markets

•

responsibilization

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

OTHER

EPFL units
Non-EPFL  
FunderFunding(s)Grant NumberGrant URL

Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Bolyai Research Grant

BO/00653/15

Available on Infoscience
October 17, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/255002
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