The Governance of Social Risks: Nurturing Social Solidarity through Social Impact Bonds?

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Abstract

Despite having been around for a decade now, Social Impact Bonds (SIBs)–payment by result contracts funding social programmes–are still a niche instrument. Constituting but a fraction of the overall impact investment sector, they were expected to grow much faster and augur a new model of pursuing social policy objectives. Whilst this has not yet occurred, they nevertheless continue to benefit from a great degree of political support and academic interest. But outside of the practitioner-focused literature, the scholarship investigating SIBs has largely identified financialisation and the erosion of social solidarity as the main dynamics underpinning this development. This article argues that it is important to also attend to SIBs as expressions of transformations occurring within the design and pursuit of social policy objectives. By looking at SIBs as a form of governance of social risks, the article argues that SIBs nurture their own forms of social solidarity. Based on three distinguishing tenets of SIBs, three types of solidarities are emphasised: inter-temporal, cross-sectoral and risk-insurance solidarities. Whilst these can spur social inclusion, innovation and collaboration, the article discusses how they can also be spurious and can come undone.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1062-1077
Number of pages16
JournalNew Political Economy
Volume26
Issue number6
Early online date9 Mar 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council under grant number ES/T008687/1. The author is grateful to Andrea Mennicken, Mike Power, Peter Miller, Jose Bolanos, Finia Kuhlmann, and all the AC500 seminar participants in the Accounting Department at the LSE where previous versions of this article were probed. The author would also like to thank Anastasia Nesvetailova, Stefano Pagliari, Steffen Murau, and participants at the 32nd Annual SASE Conference and the 12th Annual Critical Finance Studies Conference for invaluable feedback, as well as all reviewers for their constructive feedback.

Keywords

  • Financialisation
  • impact investing
  • social impact bonds
  • social solidarity
  • welfare state

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Development
  • Political Science and International Relations

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