Joakim Sandberg

Current Activities:

Co-editing a handbook on fiduciary duty and institutional investment for Cambridge University Press, which is expected to make much headway on mainstreaming ESG concern. The book will contain thoughtful comments from influential contributors from all over the world, both academics & practitioners.

Bio:

Joakim Sandberg holds a Ph.D. in Practical Philosophy from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and is currently Assistant Professor at the same university. He is also Honorary Research Fellow in Global Ethics at the University of Birmingham (UK) and Associate Researcher at the Centre for European Research on Microfinance at Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). Joakim’s main academic interests are moral philosophy and applied ethics, especially business ethics. He is currently involved in two major international research programs: He is co-organizer of the AHRC Research Network on Microfinance, a research network which discusses ethical issues concerning microloans to the poor, and he is member of the Sustainable Investment Research Platform (SIRP), a research program which concerns to what extent pension funds can and should acknowledge environmental standards in their investments.

Joakim has published articles in journals such as The Journal of Ethics, Journal of Business Ethics, and Business Ethics Quarterly, and has contributed to books such as The Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and Ethics: A University Guide. His presentation on fiduciary duty and socially responsible investment won an award at the 8^th International Conference on Corporate Governance at University of Birmingham, June 2010.

Interests:

1. To what extent are institutional investors’ obligations toward their beneficiaries (fiduciary duties) impediments to their effective engagement in sustainable investment? And what can be done about it?
2. Is microfinance an ethically recommendable way of fighting global poverty? And can be a way for commercial banks to ethically redeem themselves after the financial crisis?
3. Is the financial transaction tax (FTT) a sound way of promoting greater sustainability in the financial sector?

e-mail:  joakim.sandberg [at] filosofi.gu.se