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AbstractThis empirical study explores the financialization of social sustainability driven by sustainability accounting and reporting initiatives (SARIs). Since no globally accepted definition of what social sustainability encompasses exists, the paper asks how social sustainability is translated into the financial market language by SARIs as they provide standards for disclosing corporate non-financial performance and promote their concepts of social sustainability. The paper uses a two-step qualitative content analysis. First, it operationalizes social sustainability based on the empirical data of six sustainability rating agencies. Second, this operationalization is compared with the concepts created by three SARIs. The paper shows significant differences between the concepts of the SARIs and the rating agencies. While the rating agencies altogether interpret social sustainability with 83 distinct aspects, the SARIs, although differently created, use significant reduced concepts where 20% of these aspects are absent. The result of this financialization process could be a simplified and financially determined concept of social sustainability within die socially discourse. The research is limited to social sustainability and its financialization by SARIs. Individual indicators and their way or intensity to capture aspects of social sustainability were not part of the research interest. Further research should investigate the economic and the ecological pillars of sustainability as well as the usage of such financialized concepts within the society and especially by corporations. The paper unfolds the arbitrariness of operationalizing a qualitative phenomenon like social sustainability through the financial system. It discloses the need for looking at the mechanisms behind such processes and at the interests of the actors behind the frameworks. The paper reveals the financialization process driven by SARIs and demonstrates its simplifying effects on the concept of social sustainability. Furthermore, the paper shows that SARIs as metrics for non-financial aspects are troubled with a lack of transparency and a lack of convergence.

In this article, we provide a broad picture of the adaptation of economic classification technologies that were originally used to provide financial information and to classify companies according to their financial performance. The same approach is now available for the benefit of sustainability investors. The adaptation of such financial classification technologies to account for questions of sustainability has been engendered by the growing importance of financial markets and by the recognition of sustainability, as a guiding concept for contemporary societies. Since credit ratings, as well as financial accounting and reporting, are established measures for financial performance, they have inspired the development of similar classification systems for sustainability performance, and can be used to accommodate sustainability investors. We outline the adaptation of financial classification systems to the issue of sustainability and we compare the development and institutionalization, especially as it relates to the current market structure of classification systems in the financial markets, based on both financial and sustainability data. In the second part of this paper we compare the interpretation of social sustainability by three different sustainability accounting and reporting initiatives, in order to illustrate the heterogeneity of the available data applicable to subsequent classification. We point out that the operationalization of the three initiatives differs in respect to the nature and the extent of information requested. While accounting frameworks require relatively few quantitative outcomes, reporting frameworks demand more extensive quantitative and qualitative data. Finally, we discuss the opportunities and difficulties associated with the adaptation of classification systems from the field of finance to the field of sustainability.

"Wir vertreten die These, dass die neuen organisatorischen Aktivitäten der IG Metall auf einen günstigen Nährboden treffen. In beiden Fällen herrscht große Unzufriedenheit mit der Lohnentwicklung der letzten Jahre und eine stärkere Bereitschaft, sich zu engagieren, um daran etwas zu ändern. Weiterhin hat ein Imagewandel der IG Metall stattgefunden: Im Umfeld der etablierteren gewerkschaftlichen Strukturen im Westen ist dieser zu einem guten Teil der (erfolgreichen) Krisenpolitik der Gewerkschaften geschuldet. In den schwach organisierten Betrieben im Osten wird die IG Metall vermehrt als kompetenter Ansprechpartner wahrgenommen, um den unzumutbaren Arbeitsbedingungen zu begegnen. Dieser Trend wird in unserem Fallbeispiel in Westdeutschland durch die Kampagnenpolitik der IG Metall - vor allem die Leiharbeitskampagne - verstärkt. Im Organisationsbereich der VK Ost scheint wiederum ein weitgehendes Umdenken in den Belegschaften stattzufinden. In verschiedenen Betrieben ist es zu einem Generationswandel gekommen. Viele Beschäftigte, die der IG Metall aufgrund ihrer Erfahrungen mit dem Freien Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbund (FDGB) in der DDR und der Strukturprobleme nach der Wiedervereinigung skeptisch gegenüberstanden und teilweise enge Beziehungen zur Geschäftsführung unterhielten, sind heute in Rente. Die junge Generation hingegen hat weitaus weniger Vorbehalte gegenüber Gewerkschaften." (Textauszug)