Progress in Political Economy has made a wonderful job in compiling reviews and critiques of Susanne Soederberg’s great book Debtfare States and the Poverty Industry: Money, Discipline and the Surplus Population. After the introductory summary by the author herself, Cemal Burak Tansel then highlighted the major contribution of the book as an historical materialist reading of one particular element of neoliberal governance enabling the readers to grasp the strategic state responses and material crystallizations of credit-led accumulation. Subsequently, Gareth Bryant gave the hint of implementing the perspective for analysing the Australian public policy. Finally the Past & Present Reading Group conveyed ten questions on debtfare states, opening space for Soederberg to locate the analysis of debtfare states within the genre of critical political economy studies and the wider context of a Marxian analysis of the constellations of contemporary capitalism. Soederberg responded with ten answers on debtfare states in detail further explaining the intermingling of her contribution.
