Calculative Ethics: The Ambiguous Politics of Impact Finance (RIPE Series in Global Political Economy)

Calculative Ethics examines social and development impact bonds as a form of ethical finance that adopts a fact-centred approach to addressing social ills.Impact bonds are shown to recast ethical investing through evidence-based governing, tying investor returns to demonstrated social outcomes in domains such as health and education.The book argues that this logic of fact-based financing is gaining institutional traction, reshaping investing practices, public service commissioning, and approaches to development finance. Drawing on three case studies-addressing homelessness and chronic illness in the UK, and educational outcomes for girls and boys in India-Calculative Ethics traces how impact bonds bring together financial tools, scientific evaluation methods (such as randomised controlled trials), and performance management into programmatic responses to poverty-related issues.Rather than simply advancing financial interests under an ethical banner, impact bonds are shown to reconfigur