Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T12:41:23.400Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 3 - Disentangling Marketization from Assetization? The Case of the Market for Social Investments

from Part I - Market Designs and Market Misfires

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2024

By
Théo Bourgeron
Edited by
Susi Geiger ,
Katy Mason ,
Neil Pollock ,
Philip Roscoe ,
Annmarie Ryan ,
Stefan Schwarzkopf  and
Pascale Trompette
Susi Geiger
Affiliation:
University College Dublin
Katy Mason
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
Neil Pollock
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Philip Roscoe
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
Annmarie Ryan
Affiliation:
University of Limerick
Stefan Schwarzkopf
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School
Pascale Trompette
Affiliation:
Université de Grenoble
Get access

Summary

The concept of assetization has been recently developed to designate the social processes through which things are turned into assets. Building on the case of the market for social investment in France, this chapter proposes to untangle the two concepts of marketization and assetization. Assetization occurs when a market object is constructed in such a way that it provides a rent to its owner. However, this chapter departs from the view that describes assetization as the unintended outflow of marketization. Instead, it examines how the prospect of assetization can actually be the key driver behind the creation of new markets. It contends that such entanglements between marketization and assetization should be tracked by investigating: a) whether new markets are supported by coalitions dominated by financial investors and b) whether these markets feature capitalization agencements designed at channelling rent to such investors. It concludes by detailing the conditions needed to untangle the marketization process from the assetization one and calls for Market Studies to exert scrutiny over how numerous ‘markets for collective concerns’ end up being turned into ‘markets for investors.’

Keywords

assetizationmarketizationsocial impact investment
Type
Chapter
Information
Market Studies
Mapping, Theorizing and Impacting Market Action
 , pp. 51 - 65
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barman, E. (2016) Caring Capitalism: The Meaning and Measure of Social Value. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birch, K. (2020) Technoscientific rent: toward a theory of rentiership for technoscientific capitalism. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 45(1), 3–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birch, K., and Muniesa, F. (eds.) (2020) Assetization: Turning Things into Assets in Technoscientific Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourgeron, T. (2020) Constructing the double circulation of capital and ‘social impact’: an ethnographic study of a French impact investment fund. Historical Social Research, 45(3), 117–139.Google Scholar
Braun, B. (2021) Asset management capitalism as a corporate governance regime, in Hacker, J., Hertel-Fernandez, A., Pierson, P., and Thelen, K. (eds.), The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 270–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, B. (2022) Exit, control, and hypocrisy: structural power under asset management capitalism. Politics & Society, 50(4), 630–654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callon, M. (2021) Markets in the Making: Rethinking Competition, Goods, and Innovation. New York: Zone Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiapello, E., and Godefroy, G. (2017) The dual function of judgement devices: why does the plurality of market classifications matter? Historical Social Research, 42(1), 152–188.Google Scholar
Chiapello, E., and Knoll, L. (2020) Social finance and impact investing: governing welfare in the era of financialization. Historical Social Research, 45(3), 7–30.Google Scholar
Comité français sur l’investissement à impact (2014) Comment et pourquoi favoriser des investissements à impact social [How and Why to Favour Social Impact Investments]. Paris: Ministère de l’Économie Sociale et Solidaire.Google Scholar
Demontès, C. (2013) Avis sur le projet de loi relative à l’économie sociale et solidaire [Opinion on the bill related to the social economy]. Paris: Sénat.Google Scholar
Doganova, L., and Muniesa, F. (2015) Capitalization devices: business models and the renewal of markets, in Kornberger, M., Justesen, L., Madsen, A. K., and Mouritsen, J. (eds.), Making Things Valuable. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 109–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dowling, E. (2017) In the wake of austerity: social impact bonds and the financialisation of the welfare state in Britain. New Political Economy, 22(3), 294–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dowling, E. (2020) The Care Crisis: What Caused It and How Can We End It? London: Verso.Google Scholar
Dowling, E., and Harvie, D. (2014) Harnessing the social: state, crisis and (big) society. Sociology, 48(5), 869–886.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehrenstein, V. (2018) Carbon sink geopolitics. Economy and Society, 47(1), 162–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
France Invest (2020) Annuaire 2020 des membres de la Commission Impact [2020 Directory of the Members of the Impact Commission]. Paris: France Invest.Google Scholar
France Invest and PERACS (2020) 2019: surperformance du capital-investissement français à fin 2019 [2019: the French private equity market overperformed]. Paris: France Invest.Google Scholar
Frankel, C., Ossandón, J., and Pallesen, T. (2019) The organization of markets for collective concerns and their failures. Economy and Society, 48(2), 153–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
French Impact (2018) Lancement de l’initiative French Impact [Launching of the French Impact initiative]. Paris: Ministère de la Transition Écologique et Solidaire.Google Scholar
Gabor, D. (2021) The Wall Street consensus. Development and Change, 52(3), 429–459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geiger, S., and Bourgeron, T. (2023) In the name of transparency: organizing European pharmaceutical markets through struggles over transparency devices. Organization Studies, 44(11), 1751–1773.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geiger, S., and Gross, N. (2018) Market failures and market framings: can a market be transformed from the inside? Organization Studies, 39(10), 1357–1376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geiger, S., Harrison, D., Kjellberg, H., and Mallard, A. (eds.) (2014) Concerned Markets: Economic Ordering for Multiple Values. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golka, P. (2019) Financialization as Welfare: Social Impact Investing and British Social Policy, 1997–1216. Zurich: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golka, P. (2023) The allure of finance: social impact investing and the challenges of assetization in financialized capitalism. Economy and Society, 52(1), 62–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guézennec, C., and Malochet, G. (2013) L’impact investing pour financer l’économie sociale et solidaire? [Developing impact investment to fund the social economy?], Working Paper 2013-02. Paris: Commissariat Général à la Stratégie et à la Prospective.Google Scholar
Hand, D., Dithrich, H., Sunderji, S., and Nova, N. (2020) 2020 Annual Impact Investor Survey. New York: Global Impact Investing Network.Google Scholar
Harvey, D. (2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hély, M. (2019) Genèse de ‘l’entreprise de l’ESS’ et désétatisation de l’intérêt general [Genesis of the ‘social business’ and destatization of the public interest]. Informations sociales, 2019(1), 88–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
J. P. Morgan (2010) Impact investments: an emerging asset class, research note. New York: J.P. Morgan.Google Scholar
Langley, P. (2021) Assets and assetization in financialized capitalism. Review of International Political Economy, 28(2), 382–393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laurent, A., and Mallard, A. (2020) Labelling the Economy: Qualities and Values in Contemporary Markets. Zurich: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mirowski, P. (2013) Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Mirowski, P. (2014) The political movement that dared not speak its own name: the neoliberal thought collective under erasure, Working Paper 23. New York: Institute for New Economic Thinking.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muniesa, F., et al. (2017) Capitalization: A Cultural Guide. Paris: Presses des Mines.Google Scholar
Nadaï, A., and Cointe, B. (2020) Turning sunlit rooftops and windy sits into energy assets, in Birch, K., and Muniesa, F. (eds.), Assetization: Turning Things into Assets in Technoscientific Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 149–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neyland, D. (2017) The transformation of children-at-risk into an investment proposition. The Sociological Review, 66(3), 492–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ossandón, J., and Ureta, S. (2019) Problematizing markets: market failures and the government of collective concerns. Economy and Society, 48(2), 175–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Social Investment Task Force (2003) Enterprising Communities: Wealth before Welfare. London: UK Social Investment Forum.Google Scholar
Tse, A., and Warner, M. (2020) The razor’s edge: social impact bonds and the financialization of early childhood services. Journal of Urban Affairs, 42(6), 816–832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, J. (2020) Surveying the SIB economy: social impact bonds, ‘local’ challenges, and shifting markets in urban social problems. Journal of Urban Affairs, 42(6), 907–919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×