Political investorism: conceptualising investment-based market lobbying for social change

Social movement organisations mobilise shareholders and other investors to lobby corporations on a range of issues including climate change, modern slavery, and migration, utilising tactics including shareholder resolutions, divestment, boycotts, legal action, and naming and shaming campaigns.

Existing conceptualisations of these acts relegate them to business management scholarship or conflate them with political consumerism, failing to capture the unique political role of investors.

In this seminar, Erin presents a conceptualisation of 'political investorism' as a cohering term for investment-based political participation. Drawing upon a study of political investorism in Australia, Erin considers the opportunity structures that shape political investorism, and the insider/outsider dynamics of this form of lobbying, identifying a new category of 'unnatural insider.'

About the speaker

Dr Erin O'Brien is an ARCDECRA Fellow and Associate Professor in Policy and Politics in the School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology. Her research examines political advocacy, lobbying, and participation, with a particular focus on market-based activism.

Her DECRA Fellowship project investigates the framing of responsibility between the state, civil society, and market actors for addressing complex multi-jurisdictional issues, specifically modern slavery. Prior to entering academia, Dr O'Brien worked in strategic communications in the government and not-for-profit sectors in Australia and the United Kingdom.

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This seminar presentation will be in-person only.

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Image credit: Greenpeace protest at Nestle Annual General Meeting on flickr, (CCBY-NC-ND 2.0 licence).