In this three-year program, named ‘Finance and the Common Good’ (2019-2021), Socires and the Sustainable Finance Lab (SFL) explore the feasibility of an alternative arrangement for the financial sector; a financial sector that fruitfully interacts with state and society, together setting goals for finance in service of’ the common good.

Why is this necessary? In the past few decades, the ‘logic of finance’ has increasingly nestled itself in all domains of modern societies, crowding out other motives and relational modes for interaction; a phenomenon aptly referred to as ‘financialisation’. Now, with the 2008 financial crisis still fresh in our minds, and other crises – ecological, social and (geo-)political – unfolding before our eyes, research into alternative ways of economic and financial organisation is long overdue. We believe that the countries of the former ‘Rhineland’ – Benelux, Germany and France – still stand in a societal tradition that could be the breeding ground for a fruitful new arrangement between finance, state and society, one in which transactions are embedded in relations. As there is no possibility of dictating this kind of change to any one of the actors involved, we aim to generate such commitment by engaging in high-level dialogue with the relevant stakeholders from the Rhinelandic area.

This programme has three lines of activities:
1) Young Professional Program
2) International conferences
3) Working tables – in which different themes are developed, involving both experienced decision makers as well as promising young professionals.

Download the background paper for the program here.

For more information regarding the three activity lines of this program, you can visit their respective pages:
Working Tables
Young Professional Program
International Events

For the latest news on the program please check our news-feed on this website.

Please click for the websites of Socires and/or the Sustainable Finance Lab, to learn more about these organizations.