Contradictions of financialised neoliberalism: The contemporary practice of responsible investment

Abstract

Considering a central plank of Canberra’s 1980s economic rationalist agenda, namely the introduction of compulsory superannuation, the article interrogates two key contradictions of financialised neoliberalism. The first concerns state regulation as against the operation of market mechanisms. The second is the tension between neoliberalism’s imaginary of freely contracting individuals as against a lived reality of submission to compulsory and collective structures. The article argues that the emergence of responsible investment, as a political strategy and as a device for regulating corporate conduct, is closely linked to the privatisation of retirement security through compulsory superannuation. These related developments demonstrate how some contradictions of financialised neoliberalism operate. This is explored through an examination of the literature and case study evidence from interviews with responsible investment practitioners.