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L’investissement social, référence qui se distingue de la protection sociale compensatoire pour privilégier la prévention et le développement du capital humain, alimente bon nombre des réformes des États-providence. Après avoir caractérisé la dimension internationale de son déploiement, cet article met en lumière le cas français. Pour ce faire, il prend l’exemple de la Stratégie nationale de prévention et de lutte contre la pauvreté (SNPLP) et s’appuie sur une enquête documentaire et une campagne d’entretiens menée auprès de 164 acteurs (au niveau national ainsi que dans 6 régions et 13 départements). Dans une perspective multiniveaux, il se penche alors à la fois sur les contributions du territoire national et des territoires infranationaux dans la diffusion de l’investissement social en France.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, social investment has fuelled many Welfare state reforms at the international level. This notion offers a third way between the Keynesian paradigm and the neoliberal approaches advocating the dismantling of social policies. In fact, it distinguishes itself from social protection, focusing on risk prevention rather than compensation. It also enhances social expenditure considering it generates positive social and economic benefits if it aims to support human capital and capabilities in order to develop skills, employability and autonomy. Therefore, it promotes direct programs and actions towards childhood, youth, and occupational integration. This paper aims to shed light on the spreading and implementation of social investment in multi-level governance systems. Therefore, it examines national and subnational territories’ contribution to its deployment, using the example of the 2018 French Poverty Plan called “ Stratégie nationale de prévention et de lutte contre la pauvreté (SNPLP)”. The analysis is based on a documentary survey and an interview campaign with 164 stakeholders conducted at the national level, as well as in 6 regions and 13 departments. The article contains two parts. On the one hand, we document the declination of social investment in national territories and show its recent development in France through the Poverty Plan. On the other hand, we look at subnational territories’ mobilization in the dissemination of this perspective through the same Plan. Three main results stand out on this point: first, the appropriation of social investment by the French subnational actors remains relative even if the notion’s influence is noticeable in their speeches; then, its spreading is hindered by governance’s complexity; finally, social investment is contributing to the development of a new vision of subnational territories in the management of social problems.