Ryan Davey
LightNews LightNews
banner
ryandavey284.bsky.social
Ryan Davey
@ryandavey284.bsky.social
500 followers 1.2K following 22 posts
Anthropologist | Out now: The Personal Life of Debt: Coercion, Subjectivity & Inequality in Britain (Bristol Uni Press). https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-personal-life-of-debt. Teach social sciences at Cardiff Uni. @RyanDavey284 on twitter.
Posts Replies Media Videos
ryandavey284.bsky.social
What a treat to get together online with familiar faces and some new ones to mark the launch of my book. Big thanks to the speakers and all who came 🙏
June 27, 2025 at 4:04 PM
ryandavey284.bsky.social
I'm having a virtual launch for my book next Friday. All welcome - if you'd like to join, register here: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/d3bbc3...
June 17, 2025 at 9:20 AM
ryandavey284.bsky.social
My book 'The Personal Life of Debt' is out now. You can read the free e-book here:

bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/monobook-oa/...
Book cover image
May 28, 2025 at 9:40 AM
ryandavey284.bsky.social
First print copies of my book arrived! Earlier than expected so I half thought I had bought some books in a frenzy and forgotten. 😝

bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-personal...
May 13, 2025 at 10:24 AM
ryandavey284.bsky.social
My book is out in 2 and a bit weeks! (on 23rd May)

Info here: bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-personal...
Front cover - a pink box with text stating 'The Personal Life of Debt: Coercion, Subjectivity and Inequality in Britain by Ryan Davey'. Background of white debt letters in the air against blue background. Back cover reads: “The Personal Life of Debt redefines debt through a groundbreaking and deeply intimate ethnography of Britain’s working classes, uncovering invisible resistance and the violent structuring of lives and class conditions. A transformative reading.” Isabelle Guérin, French Institute of Research for Sustainable Development, author of The Indebted Woman: Kinship, Sexuality and Capitalism As the cost of living rises, British households face unprecedented levels of debt. But many commentators characterise those who stash away envelopes, leave telephones ringing, or hide from debt collectors as irresponsible. The first full-length ethnography of debt problems in Britain, this book uses long-term fieldwork on a southern English housing estate to give a sensitive retelling of the everyday lives of indebted people. It argues that the inequalities of debt go beyond economic questions to include the way state coercion hinders people’s efforts to define what they truly value. Indeed, from finance to housing and even parenthood, the potential for dispossession has become a pervasive method of power that strikes at the heart of personal life. Ryan Davey is Lecturer in Social Sciences at Cardiff University, working across anthropology and sociology.
May 6, 2025 at 4:35 PM
ryandavey284.bsky.social
This precious one arrived today 🥰
March 7, 2025 at 8:30 PM
ryandavey284.bsky.social
At the end of a dire week (thanks to Cardiff University’s mismanagement), a small silver lining yesterday was receiving the proofs on my first book.
THE PERSONAL LIFE OF DEBT Coercion, Subjectivity and Inequality in Britain Ryan Davey Contents Introduction Interlude 1: Economic Life and Social Distinction in Woldham PART I Expressions of Indebtedness 1 “You Can’t Argue With Them”: Debt and the Struggle over Value 2 Making Debt into an Object: The Work of Debt Advisers Interlude 2: Debt and the Household PART II Prospects of Expropriation 3 Unsettled Homes: The Interruptible Futures and Violable 4 “But I Do Wish Better for my Kids”: Parental Attachments and Forced Child Removal 5 The Arts of Indebted Optimism: Between Fiction and Reality Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes References Index
February 1, 2025 at 9:48 AM