Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the social life of multiple currencies in contemporary Poland, specifically the relationship between local currency, the złoty, the Swiss franc, and the Euro in the context of the proliferation of adjustable-rate mortgages indexed to or denominated to in Swiss francs.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is an analysis of the social and cultural effects of the proliferation of adjustable-rate mortgages indexed to or denominated to in Swiss francs in Poland. The boom in foreign currency mortgages in Central and Eastern Europe has afforded the Swiss currency an unexpectedly central place not only in the everyday life of young urban middle class mortgagors but also in the broader public discourse and social imaginary. The currency was domesticated and created in big Polish cities a historically novel form of households, which continue to be positioned by the mortgage contracts as sorts of carry traders in the global currency market, but with no significant shield from the currency rate risk. While such households account for less than 2% of the population, "franc people" (frankowicze) have become an extremely visible group nationwide in representations ranging from journalism through TV and theater to hip-hop. Based on 22 months of fieldwork among those indebted in francs and on archival research and discourse analysis, this paper focuses on the dynamically changing relationship between Polish currency, the złoty, the Swiss franc, and the Euro. What are the uses and effects of speculative relationships to multiple currencies, which were supposed to address the housing need in the context of an enduring shortage of living space? The analysis combines long-term ethnography (with fieldwork between 2012-2015) and historical analysis in order to track the shifting forms of productivity of the multiple currency dynamic through the years.