From the School Yard to the Conservation Area: Impact Investment across the Nature/Social Divide
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Authors
Cohen, Dan
Date
2020-05-06
Type
journal article
Language
en
Keyword
Alternative Title
Abstract
In the face of planetary crises, from inequality to biodiversity loss, “impact investing” has emerged as a vision for a new, “moral” financial system where investor dollars fund socio-environmental repair while simultaneously generating financial returns. In support of this system elite actors have formed a consensus that financial investments can have beneficial, more-than-financial outcomes aimed at solving social and environmental crises. Yet critical geographers have largely studied “green” and “social” finance separately. We propose, instead, a holistic geography of impact investing that highlights the common methods used in attempts to offset destructive investments with purportedly reparative ones. This involves interrogating how elite-led ideas of social and environmental progress are reflected in investments, as well as deconstructing the “objects” of impact investments. As examples, we use insights from both “green” and “social” literatures to analyse the social values embedded in projects of financialisation in schooling and affordable housing in the US.
Description
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Cohen, D., & Rosenman, E. (2020). From the School Yard to the Conservation Area: Impact Investment across the Nature/Social Divide. Antipode, 52(5), 1259–1285., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12628. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
Citation
Cohen, D., & Rosenman, E. (2020). From the School Yard to the Conservation Area: Impact Investment across the Nature/Social Divide. Antipode, 52(5), 1259–1285. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12628
Publisher
Wiley