147 8 Inequality and financialisation REITs and ‘cuckoos’ come home to roost: private equity takes over the Irish housing market The ‘success’ of government policy in making Irish property an attractive asset for global investors, equity and wealth funds has resulted in a dramatic increase in investor flows into real estate in Ireland. The total assets in real estate funds in Ireland (about two thirds of which are held in property in Ireland) almost doubled from €6.9 billion in 2014 to €12 billion in 2015, and then increased by over 400% to reach €27
131 7 The new waves of financialisation: vultures and REITs The Irish state’s strategy to overcome the global property and financial crash of 2008 and achieve the recovery of financial institutions and the wider economy was based on the sale of ‘toxic’ and ‘non-performing’ loans and associated land and property, at a considerable discount, to international ‘vulture funds’ and property investors via the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) and domestic banks. Central to this approach was supporting rental and house price inflation to bring about a
human ailment dramatically differ from the social policies of the expanding welfare state. Nevertheless, ailment continues to be a mobilising force that simultaneously generates both social and care relations and market and financial activity. In this chapter we examine how marketisation and, as we later argue, increasingly the financialisation of care transform the social orders which emerged as collective and public answers to ailment during the golden era of the welfare state (see previous chapter ). Following Krippner’s (2005 , 174) definition, we define
47 3 Financialisation and social protection? The UK’s path towards a socially protective public– private pension system Paul Bridgen Introduction The concept of financialisation has been used by scholars in a range of disciplines since the turn of the century to describe structural developments in late-modern capitalism. Financialisation refers broadly to ‘the increasing role of financial motives, financial markets, financial actors and financial institutions in the operation of the domestic and international economies’ (Epstein, 2006: 3). A larger role
103 6 Financialisation, Social Impact Bonds and the making of new market spaces in social policy Jay Wiggan Introduction: social impact investment and financialising social policy Social impact investing (SII) is a mechanism by which governments seek to access and mobilise the resources of private for-profit and philanthropic capital to finance the pursuit and attainment of specific social and/or environmentally desirable outcomes, through various forms of investment activity (Social Impact Investment Taskforce, 2013: 1; HM Government 2014, 2016a, 2016b
education in the UK. We locate these practices in broader debates about the financialisation of childhood and suggest that, while financial education is a seductive imaginary for the neoliberal age, a range of fundamental misunderstandings about financial strain and its precursors, potentially toxic constructions of childhood and an increasingly questionable commercial shaping of youth fatally wound the promise of financial education. Financialising childhood: shaping children’s subjectivities The OECD recently stated that financial education is ‘the process by which
Should the public play a greater role within the financial system?
Decisions about money are a part of our everyday lives. Supporters promote financial inclusion as a way of helping people navigate decisions about money. However, critics fear these policies promote the financialisation of the welfare state and turn citizens into consumers.
Presenting a nuanced, critical analysis of financial inclusion, Rajiv Prabhakar brings together the supportive and critical literatures which have, until now, developed in parallel. Addressing key issues including the poverty premium, financial capability and housing, this essential dialogue advances crucial public, academic and policy debates and proposes alternative paths forward.
The principles of the modern foundational economy and its role in renewing citizenship and informing public policy are explored for the first time in this instructive collection.
Challenging mainstream social and economic thinking, it shows how foundational economy experiments at different scales can foster radical social innovation through collective, rather than private, consumption.
An interdisciplinary group of respected European academics provide case studies of initiatives and interventions around policy cornerstones including housing, food supply and water and waste management. They build a judicious evidence base of the growing relevance of foundational economic thinking and its potential to provide a new political and social outlook on civil society and social justice.
Bringing together the voices of leading experts in the field, this edition offers an up-to-date and diverse review of the best in social policy scholarship over the past year.
The book considers a range of current issues and critical debates in UK and international social policy field. It contains vital research, including discussions on the changing landscape of occupational as well as corporate welfare in the UK, the continuing impact of austerity on various social policy areas and the challenges currently faced by the NHS.
Published in association with the SPA, this comprehensive analysis of the current state of social policy will be of interest to students and academics in social policy, social welfare and related disciplines.
The unprecedented housing and homelessness crisis in Ireland is having profound impacts on Generation Rent, the wellbeing of children, worsening wider inequality and threatening the economy.
Hearne contextualises the Irish housing crisis within the broader global housing situation by examining the origins of the crisis in terms of austerity, marketisation and the new era of financialisation, where global investors are making housing unaffordable and turning it into an asset for the wealthy.
He brings to the fore the perspectives of those most affected, new housing activists and protesters whilst providing innovative global solutions for a new vision for affordable, sustainable homes for all.
