Abstract
This study analyzes the current forces that surround the promotion of Social Impact Bonds as a new and innovative way of providing funding for social and public services by linking private investors, nonprofits, and government agencies. Under this model, private investors provide funding in the form of a bond to a service provider, such as an entrepreneurial nonprofit agency or a nongovernmental organization (NGO), which agrees to deliver a particular social service to a targeted population. By providing the initial funding, the investor agrees to take on the financial risk that is usually taken on by the government agency. An intermediary organization oversees the development, implementation, and assessment of the program. If the program is deemed a success, as defined in accordance to predetermined outcomes or benchmarks, the government agency reimburses the investor. In theory, the government agency is able to pay the investors with savings that are incurred through success of the program. This type of relationship forces a deeper culture of performance outcomes and auditing into public agencies. This critical discourse analysis examines Social Impact Bonds within the wider context of neoliberal capitalism that aims to shape a culture that devalues anything public and attempts to define everything within narrow economic relationships. I assert, through this study of social impact bonds as a public pedagogical project, that neoliberalism is not simply an economic theory, but also requires extensive ideological legitimation in order to promote a practice of unimpeded individual accumulation at the expense of the social. Financial schemes such as Social Impact Bonds are seen as an acceptable means to finance social innovation because of investment in discourses of hyper-individualism, extreme competition, and consumerism over collective action and community. The main intention for this study is to expose such policies and practices as instruments of a corporate agenda that attempts to embed its ideas of market dominance into every aspect of our personal and professional lives.