From Order to Chaos: How Consumers Lose Control of Risks (and of Themselves).

This article focuses on the experiences of over-indebted consumers and how they lose control over escalating financial risks, leading to a downward trajectory from order to chaos that severely impacts their identities and well-being. Drawing on in-depth interviews and observations in Brazil, the study introduces the concept of "spiraling down with escalating risks," describing how consumers initially take credit for various reasons but face multiple concurrent adverse events, stigma, illusion of control, and self-denial, which compound their financial difficulties. The research identifies three transition stages—order, in-between, and chaos—and four dimensions of chaotic experiences: emotional battering, unmaking the world, living on immediacy, and loss of consumption with threatened subsistence. The findings challenge dominant narratives of consumer autonomy and risk management by showing that over-indebted consumers often fail to mitigate risks, suffer identity diminishment, and require systemic support beyond individual responsibility.