BETWEEN FINANCIAL INCLUSION AND OLDER ADULTS' INDEBTEDNESS: PAYROLL LOANS AS A BYPRODUCT OF SOCIOECONOMIC INSECURITY

Abstract

The study investigates whether promoting the financial inclusion of older adults through payroll lending constitutes an effective objective of the economic field or merely represents a socially legitimized discourse reproduced by the agents operating within that field. The theoretical framework is grounded in the concepts of hypervulnerability, payroll lending, and the socio-legal conception of older adults, articulated with the categories of symbolic power, economic field, habitus, and doxa. From this perspective, the study aims to examine how Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework and its core concepts operate in the relationship between the financial inclusion and the indebtedness of older adults. Methodologically, the study adopts a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative and qualitative research. The research techniques employed were bibliographic and documentary analysis. The findings suggest that financial institutions appear to instrumentalize the discourse of financial inclusion, transforming it into a mechanism of domination and persuasion directed at hypervulnerable individuals. The analysis further indicates that these institutions use the indebtedness of older adults to disseminate a narrative of financial inclusion. Within the scope of this study, this narrative is supported by Bourdieu's theoretical categories and corroborated by statistical data and media records. Finally, the findings demonstrate that the commitment of retirees' and pensioners' income is converted into banking profits, thereby reproducing the concentration of capital and distributive inequality.