Elastic Money: A Lexicon of Debt

Through definitions, personal debt stories and co-created printmaking, Elastic Money: A Lexicon of Debt maps the vocabulary used by local women in Bootle to talk about debt and money, from the emotional to the practical: financial jargon, slang, idioms, hyper-local colloquialisms and everyday words, acknowledging local people as experts-by-experience. These community definitions make up the Lexicon alongside five personal stories about debt, the complex emotions and challenges triggered by it, and ultimately the humour, defiance and collective care these women have shared.

Elastic Money: A Lexicon of Debt captures a creative and discursive process by The Alternative School of Economics commissioned by At The Library, a community arts programme that brings artists and local people together through creative practice and collective learning. In an ongoing collaboration between At the Library and Venus Charity, The Alternative School of Economics were invited to explore how the library - a space that enables borrowing of a different, more democratic kind could support the community in relation to debt.