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Legitimation dynamics: How SROI could mobilize resources for new constituencies

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  • Cooney, Kate

Abstract

The following critical essay on the social return on investment (SROI) methodology is broken into two parts. In the first section, focusing on the categorization dynamics of the SROI, I review a set of methodological and ethical tensions surrounding the SROI, using examples from my own work and other published works using SROI. These tensions include the fact that the project requires standardization to achieve comparability while concurrently offering a flexibility in constructing a narrative of impact that is attractive to users. In the second section, focusing on the legitimation dynamics, I define a narrow scope for where, despite the aforementioned pitfalls, that the SROI can be quite effective in building a rhetorical argument for directing material resources. The essay argues that despite ongoing methodological challenges, the investor lens and market logic undergirding the metric provide a powerful frame for persuasion that can be used to construct worthiness and value creation for constituents not already constructed as such.

Suggested Citation

  • Cooney, Kate, 2017. "Legitimation dynamics: How SROI could mobilize resources for new constituencies," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 110-115.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:epplan:v:64:y:2017:i:c:p:110-115
    DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2016.11.010
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    1. Mercedes Ruiz-Lozano & Pilar Tirado-Valencia & Antonio Sianes & Antonio Ariza-Montes & Vicente Fernández-Rodríguez & Mª Carmen López-Martín, 2020. "SROI Methodology for Public Administration Decisions about Financing with Social Criteria. A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-16, February.

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    Keywords

    SROI; Social impact; Valuation;
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