Journal Special Issue - Social Outcomes Conference 2020

Since 2016, the annual convening that we now call the Social Outcomes Conference has typically led to the publication of a journal special issue covering some of the topics discussed. For this 2020 edition of the conference, we invite scholars to submit academic work for a similar publication picking up on the themes of the sessions. 

Below, we describe four special issues published so far, and describe how to be in touch about submitting your work for this one.

Emerging from the 2016 conference, a special issue of the Journal of Economic Policy Reform was published in 2019 on the theme of "Widening perspectives on SIBs", edited by Alec Fraser, Stef Tan, Neil McHugh & Mildred Warner​. The introduction is open access and articles can be access by contacting the contributors: Julia Morley, Elle Carter, Chris Fox & Stephen Morris, Sinclair et al, Fraser et al.​

From the 2017 conference, Public Money & Management published a special issue in 2020 on the theme of "Futures in social investment? Learning from the emerging policy and practice of Social Impact Bonds." Again, the introduction is open access and articles can be obtained by contacting individual authors. The issue was edited by Rob Wilson, Northumbria U.; Alec Fraser, KCL; Jonathan Kimmitt, Newcastle U.; Stefanie Tan, LSHTM; Neil McHugh, GCU; Toby Lowe, Northumbria U.; Mildred Warner, Cornell; Susan Baines, MMU; Eleanor Carter, U of Oxford​. 

Public Money and Management is a practitioner orientated public management journal with wide readership in policy and practice community. The special issue included a mix of Full Papers (5) and shorter New Development (2) and Debate (5) pieces. ​

​The editors drew from range of sources to ask the question ‘whither’ SIBs in wider international context of Social Investment, and grouped pieces into two main themes​:

• Learning going on in the thinking about and doing of SIBs and social impact investment where those working on, in and with complex applied areas report on their observations about the challenges of the making of SIBs and shaping of the environment for SIBs.​
  
• Contributions taking a step back from the space to critically examine the conceptual framings underlying the prevailing assumptions of social investment and the roles/discourses of investors.​
  

One conclusion was that a single coherent, practical, ethical, efficient and/or effective funding instrument for public and social policy in the form or spirit of SIBs may still remain out of reach and might, in fact, be a mirage. ​Another was that talk of a discernible ‘SIB effect’ are certainly true—at least in the way that it is has absorbed the energy of a community in working through its implications at all levels of the policy and practice ecology.​​

The 2018 conference yielded a special issue of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis – Research and Practice published in 2020, on the theme of "Comparing the Development of Social Impact Bonds across Different Countries and Policy Sectors". All articles are open access during September 2020. The editors were Alec Fraser, King’s College London; Clare FitzGerald, University of Oxford; ​Jonathan Kimmitt, Newcastle University. Contributors and their papers included:

• Chiapello E. & Knoll, L. The Welfare Conventions Approach: A Comparative Perspective on Social Impact Bonds​
  
• Hajer, J. The National Governance and Policy Context of Social Impact Bond Emergence: A Comparative Analysis of Leaders and Skeptics​
  
• Tse, A. & Warner, M. A Policy Outcomes Comparison: Does SIB Market Discipline Narrow Social Rights?​
  
• Dayson, C., Fraser, A., & Lowe, T. A Comparative Analysis of Social Impact Bond and Conventional Financing Approaches to Health Service Commissioning in England: The Case of Social Prescribing​

A related special issue in the Journal of Urban Affairs looks at Social Impact Bonds and the Urban Transformation, and the articles will be open access until December. The editors are Eve Chiapello, EHESS, France; Lisa Knoll, Universität Hamburg, Germany; and Mildred Warner, Cornell University, US​. Papers include:

• Ogman, Robert: “Ethical capitalism” in the city: Embedded economy or marketization? The case of social impact bonds​
  
• Williams, James W.: Surveying the SIB economy: Social impact bonds, “local” challenges, and shifting markets in urban social problems. ​
  
• Tse, Allison; Warner, Mildred: The razor’s edge: Social impact bonds and the financialization of early childhood services. ​
  
• Alenda-Demoutiez, Juliette:  A fictitious commodification of local development through development impact bonds? ​
  
• Lilley, Simon; Harvie, David; Lightfoot, Geoff; Weir, Kenneth : Using derivative logic to speculate on the future of the social investment market.​
  
• Riot, Elen: Bonding with Children: Actors' Views on the Use of Social Impact Bonds in France for Children at Risk​
  

​If you have work to submit, we are looking for contributions before March 2021 that:

• Explore how outcomes-based contracts advance or diminish New Public Management inspired ways of working
  
• What outcomes based contracting and impact bonds signal about NPM legitimacy and hegemony across international contexts
  
• Describe and interrogate the governance implications of OBC and SIBs for inter-sectoral relationships in the provision of public services
  

If you are interested in learning more about the submissions process, please contact Alec Fraser and Clare FitzGerald via the GO Lab.