Capital, Power, and Systemic Change

Capital is but a tool – one that can be used for many different purposes. This course critically examines the role of capital and its appurtenant power as drivers of societal outcomes, providing a framework to interrogate finance as both a locus of and an instrumentality for social change.

A through-line for this course is the tension between the use of private capital and the intentional generation of positive public outcomes. Specifically, the course dives into questions of power, legitimacy, and democracy: What does it mean for those who control capital to be stewards of social change? How do we wrestle with the lack of a public mandate for private social interventions? How will change be advanced by repurposing tools that have, historically, benefited from the status quo?

Students will become familiar with current approaches and will interrogate interventions ranging from ESG integration to community-governed capital to explore how these approaches both challenge and reproduce existing structures, examining key issues such as agency, accountability, the allocation of risks and returns among stakeholders, and how impact is defined and by whom.

Through case studies and robust class discussion, students will gain a nuanced perspective on the debates in this space, while developing the critical skills to assess the potential and limitations of current and future approaches to using finance as a vehicle for systemic change.