Paper short abstract:

The paper aims to analyse the survival strategies of citizens in failed or transitional economies such as post-Soviet and urban economies of Turkey.

Paper long abstract:

The paper aims to analyse the survival strategies of citizens in failed or transitional economies such as post-Soviet and urban economies of Turkey. In the context of limited welfare and unemployment individuals face lack of basic provisions and finances to meet daily needs for food, small items and clothing in order to survive economic hardships. This creates a situation where most vulnerable members of the society such as women, elderly persons and children suffer most. This also creates dependencies among kinship, friendship and other social networks which become crucial in providing social and financial security. Debt economies flourish in such situations of financial deficiency and lack of cash to pay their daily needs and basic provision. Debt economies are organised both interpersonally and informally as well as formally through book loans. An extreme case of debt economies through bank loans for financing daily expenses for food and basic provisions can be observed in Georgia in the devastated mining cities where people and their properties belong to the small banks where the latter innovatively successfully made profits on the misery of the poor residents of the mining cities.

Other examples of debt economies come from the south-eastern part of Turkey specifically Mardin where people borrow from their close social networks or families or even sometimes banks credits for their survival needs where they find themselves in the debt cycles.