Articles about "couples"

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Get along, resist and adjust: partner negotiations to manage debts and make ends meet

  • Lorena Pérez-Roa

Keywords: indebtedness, financialization of daily life, young adults, negotiations, couples.

In a context of rising cost of living and wage stagnation, indebtedness of Chilean households has increased to unprecedented levels. In this context, the article explores the economic arrangements of young adult and professional couples in the face of the high economic pressure caused by debt. We understand that in couple relationships the acquisition, uses and strategies of debt payment are constructed, discussed and negotiated. To this end, based on the analysis of 34 semi-structured interviews with young couples and debtors, we explore three types of negotiations: (i) those that seek to congenialize inheritances or previous financial learning; (ii) the financial strategies of resistance that couples assume in order to be able to sustain themselves financially; (iii) adjustments to future projects based on the projection of payment of their assumed commitments.