Providing an in-depth case study on the emergence of social impact investing in the UK, this book develops a new perspective on financialization processes that highlights the roles of non-financial actors. In contrast to the common view that impact investing gears finance toward the solution of social problems, the author analyzes how these investments create new problems and inequalities. To explain how social impact investing became popular in British social policy despite its unclear effectiveness, the author focuses on cooperative relations between institutional entrepreneurs from finance and various non-financial actors. Drawing on field theory, he shows how seemingly unrelated social transformations - such as HM Treasury's expanding role in public service reform - may act as resonance spaces for the spread of finance.

Opening up a new perspective on financialization processes in the terrain of public policy, this book invites readers to refocus scholarship on capitalist dynamics to the meso-level. Based on this analysis, the author also proposes ways to transform social impact investing to increase its potential for reducing global inequalities.

Autorentext

Philipp Golka obtained his PhD in Sociology from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany and has researched financialization at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales Paris, France. He first became interested in impact investing in 2011 and, before becoming a researcher, has held multiple professional positions related to the field.

Inhalt
1Introduction2Financialization and Social Impact Investing2.1What is financialization?2.1.1Financialization in markets and institutionalist perspectives on capitalism2.1.2Financialization beyond markets and the role of the state2.2Social impact investing in the UK: Linking financialization and institutionalist scholarship2.2.1What is social impact investing?2.2.2Social impact investing and social policy dynamics in the UK3Financialization, Fields, and Change3.1Fields and financialization3.1.1The use of fields for the study of financialization3.1.2Neo-institutional field theories and their limitations3.1.3Fligstein & McAdam's Alternative3.2Strategic action fields and financialization3.2.1Financialization revisited3.2.2Social skill, cooperation, and field interdependence3.2.3Settlements and field dynamics3.3Understanding the void: Cooperation, opportunities, and mechanisms3.3.1Opportunities and the problem of horizontal cooperation3.3.2Pragmatist mechanisms and the emergence of cooperation4Methodology and Research Methods4.1Abductive analysis4.2Research process4.3Research design4.3.1Single case study design4.3.2Material4.3.3Data analysis5The Financialization of Welfare5.1The field of social impact investing in the UK5.2Social impact: Definitions and governance5.3Social impact investing and redistribution5.3.1Financial intermediation5.3.2Capital mobilization and public subsidies5.3.3Private subsidies5.3.4Labor and redistribution6Financialization as Welfare6.1Entrenched social problems6.1.1What counts as a social problem6.1.2What does not count as a social problem6.2Theorizing causes: The impact and investment narratives6.2.1The under-investment narrative6.2.2The impact narrative6.3Financialization as welfare6.3.1Celebrating disruption: The Social Innovation discourse6.3.2Prognostic framing: Impact investing and the solution of social problems6.3.3Motivational framing and the impact investing field frame7Field Emergence and Stabilization7.11997-2002: Policy innovation and disparate fields7.1.1Setting the stage: British social policy around the millennium7.1.2Precursors of social impact investing7.22001-2005: Contesting social enterprise policy and public service delivery7.2.1Social enterprise: Settling the rules, expanding the scope7.2.2Early dynamics in social investment and social enterprise finance7.2.3Treasury appropriating social policy: Towards hybridization and resonance7.32006: Critical juncture7.3.1Unclaimed Assets and the birth of Social Impact Investing7.3.2The Office of the Third Sector: hybridizing social enterprise policy7.42007-2010: Piloting social impact investing7.4.1Gordon Brown as Prime Minister7.4.2Creating resonance for the financialization of welfare7.4.3Bridging the disconnect: The birth of Social Impact Bonds7.52010-2016: Field expansion7.5.1Conservatives and the emergence of a new settlement7.5.2Maintaining investors' expectations through subsidies: The leveraging state8Financialization, Resonance, and the Emergence of Cross-Field Ties8.1Pragmatist mechanisms and cooperation in social impact investing8.2Resonance8.3Resonance spaces and field dynamics8.4Resonance spaces and financialization9Discussion and Conclusion9.1Implications for sociological theorizing9.2Implications for financialization scholarship9.3Limitations and future research9.4Is social impact investing a bad thing?10References<div&gt...