Normalization of Mortgages in Public Discourse(s) in Central Europe: The Making of "Necessary Evil" or "The Best Investment"?

Abstract

Debates over the financialization of housing have been mostly connected to the issues of increasing commodification of real estate and to creation of secondary financial markets with mortgage backed securities. To some extent the research tackled the discourse of marketization related to policy changes in the United Kingdom; such as replacement of framework focusing on needs of households with concept of affordability of housing.

In this article, I would like to pursue the stream of literature focusing on the process of financialization of everyday life through accounts in public discourse(s). In this endeavour, I employ a framework build up on the theories focusing on the performativity of economy and economics.

In my contribution, I present three main discursive strategies, which I call modes of performance of the mortgage in the media discourse in the Czech Republic during 1996 - 2016. I argue that these three modes of performance: 1) performance of success of the mortgage; 2) instruction how to take on the loan backed by implicit assumption what is right practice and 'good life'; and 3) affect management of the mortgage in discourse; were essential to enact the mortgages as normal and inevitable tools to become the homeowner.

I argue that performance of inevitability of mortgages may have potentially significant political consequences; such as limiting a capacity to critique the current state of housing provision and imagine other possibilities (e. g. cooperative, municipal housing or other forms) thus reinforcing particular - financialised - reality of housing in the Czech Republic.