Das Transformationspotential des deutschen Sustainable Finance Diskurses: Eine Einschätzung auf Basis von Logiken und Frames

Against the backdrop of a simultaneous dynamization of sustainable finance and intensifying environmental and social crises, the following article carries out an analysis of the transformation potential of the sustainable finance discourse that is present in German governance discussions. The discourse is illustrated through a content analysis of the German government’s Sustainable Finance Strategy and the final report of the first Sustainable Finance Advisory Council. In order to evaluate the transformation potential, a frame analysis is conducted. Subsequently, the analyzed frames are linked to the concept of institutional logics, which allows for an assessment of their transformation potential. The article comes to the conclusion that the governance discourse on sustainable finance in Germany is dominated by an integrative frame, which describes sustainable finance per se as desirable, and a frame, which emphasizes financial risks. With regard to institutional logics, a state logic that is motivated by location specific competitiveness policies and a financial market logic dominate. This is consistent with the interpretation that the mainstreaming of sustainable finance is accompanied by an increasingly financialized discourse that derives its goals largely from its own system logics, i. e. those inherent in the financial system. Based on the analysis, the article concludes that the transformation potential of the assessed governance discourse on Sustainable Finance in Germany is relatively low