Indebted nordmann: debt, homeownership and subjectivity

Norwegians are the most indebted population on the planet, and their indebt-edness is largely driven by homeownership. We examine the historical trajecto-ries of housing finance in Norway and its relation to the ideological apparatusof the state. We argue that by disciplining the population into ‘good’ debtors,the post-war social democratic state established the foundation for the centralityof debt in Norwegianness. Additionally, we contend that indebtedness plays acrucial role in social integration. The deregulation of housing and credit in the1980s is examined as a breach of the social contract, undermining a fundamen-tal pillar of the welfare system and eroding the right to housing. The increase inhousing prices and household debt since that time has contributed to socialinequality. However, by mediating the relationship between individuals and thestate through banks and the ‘free market’, this is perceived as rational and objec-tive conditions for competition. We then proceed to question what forms ofsubjectivity are accessible to those who reject debt, particularly by exploring theexperiences of debt and homeownership within the Somali-Norwegian commu-nity, where the refusal of interest-based lending is prevalent due to moral pro-hibitions on interest, alongside experiences of systemic exclusion by banks.