(Big) Society and (Market) Discipline: Social Investment and the Financialisation of Social Reproduction

The United Kingdom is at the forefront of a global movement to establish a social investment market. At the heart of social investment we find finance – and financialisation. Specifically, we find: a financial market (the social investment market); a series of financial institutions (Big Society Capital, for example); a financial instrument (the social impact bond); and a financial practice (social investing). Focusing on the UK, given its pioneering role, this paper first provides a brief history of social investment, tracing its development from the politics of the ‘Third Way’ to the social impact bond. It then maps the terrain of the social investment market, explaining the main institutions and actors, and the social impact bond. Finally, it proposes a framework for analysing the disciplinary logics of finance, which it uses to understand the promise or threat (depending on one's perspective) of social investment and the social investment market.