| This thesis contributes to a genealogy of usury by exploring the rise and impacts of payday lending in the Canadian context. By examining the legislative discourse surrounding usury over the past century, the various practices of usury themselves, and the current attempts to regulate the impacts of payday lending through financial literacy, the work argues that the growth of payday lending has been accompanied by and has supported a novel understanding of the relationship between poverty and high-interest lending. It contends that contemporary attempts to regulate this sector are founded on a homogenous conception of the consumer that obscures many structural economic issues that previous approaches highlighted. Finally, it shows that the work of some banks and credit unions that seek to offer alternatives to payday lending are redeploying historical notions of thrift and social investment which challenge the intellectual foundation on which payday lending and financial literacy currently sit. |
