The win-win discourse of impact investing: legitimising accumulation for a new generation of Brazilian wealth elites

Abstract

Brazilian ‘impact investing’ seeks a sustainable approach to local development – aligned with the broader financialisation of international development – by collapsing the boundaries between ‘social impact’ and financial return. In doing so, impact investors and their advisors build on earlier philanthropic narratives found within Brazilian family businesses, reinventing these for a new generation of ‘purpose-driven’ millennials claiming to be reshaping capitalism. Ultimately, impact investing helps to legitimise wealth accumulation among a new generation of Brazilian elites (thus helping to maintain wealth inequality), providing a framework for the continuation of business as usual under the guise of business radically redesigned.