Icelandic and international scholars discuss the complex developments leading to the banking collapse in Iceland and the larger social and cultural implications and consequences in a new book „Gambling Debt: Iceland’s Rise and Fall in the Global Economy“ published recently.
The book is a much broader discussion on the economic crisis than previous publications on the subject. The chapters, written by different contributors, touch upon the Viking theme and the Icelandic Sagas in during the bubble, the Household Revolution after it had burst, and a new political wave led by the untraditional Best Party (Besti flokkurinn) as well as the impact of the collapse on the education system and employment prospects for immigrants. “Chapters from anthropologists, sociologists, historians, economists, and key local participants focus on the neoliberal policies—mainly the privatization of banks and fishery resources—that concentrated wealth among a select few, skewed the distribution of capital in a way that Iceland had never experienced before, and plunged the country into a full-scale economic crisis.” (University Press of Colorado). Gambling Dept is edited by E. Paul Durrenberger, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology from the University of Iwoa and Penn State University, and Gísli Pálsson Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iceland.
The book is available on Amazon.com (for Kindle). A free PDF download is available on the publisher’s website.