Managing troubles-talk in the renegotiation of a loan contract

• This study focuses on troubles-tellings in calls to the Swedish Board for Student Support, where the caller wants to negotiate the repayment contract of a student loan. The study relates to research on the organization of troubles-tellings in institutional interaction, and the overall question of how talk about money is a delicate matter that is shaped by moral concerns. The data consist of 94 calls in which the caller proposes either a reduction or a temporal suspension of repayment. The analysis shows that troubles-tellings are launched to account for past failures to adhere to the contracted payment schedule. These tellings are met with minimal responses, which in turn engender a shift towards solutions that resonate with the institutional agenda. The study explores the resources recruited by the participants to deal with a potentially stigmatic situation by formulating the troubles as merely temporary and projecting a future situation where payments are made on time.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Studier av enskilda språk (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Languages (hsv//eng)

Keyword

financial troubles

institutional agenda

moral concerns

reason for call

stigma

student loan

temporal shift

troubles-tellings

Linguistics

Lingvistik

Debt

financial troubles

institutional agenda

moral concerns

reason for call

stigma

student loan

temporal shift

troubles-tellings

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)