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The chapter describes the phenomenon of company–community agreements in the mining sector, situates them relative to two veins of responsible investment activity, and assesses whether they might serve as a proxy for the “community relations” expectations of responsible investors.

Based on an evaluation of two recent company–community agreements and surveying of executives from mining firms that have signed agreements with Indigenous communities, it was found that: (1) though imperfect as a proxy for many of the “community relations” expectations of responsible investors, company–community agreements offer benefits and make provisions that exceed current expectations, especially with respect to the recognition of the right of Indigenous communities to offer their free, prior, and informed consent to mine developments; and (2) mining executives recognize the utility of agreement-making with communities, and are comfortable with such efforts being interpreted as recognition of the right of Indigenous communities to consent to development.

The chapter serves to introduce responsible investors to the emergence of company–community agreements in the global mining sector, and calls upon them to advocate for their further use in order to reduce the riskiness of their investments, address social justice concerns, and assist communities to visualize and realize their goals.

For the first time, the growing phenomenon of company–community agreements in the mining sector is situated within responsible investment scholarship. Additionally, drawing on both logic and evidence, the chapter challenges the responsible investment community to rethink its approach to screening and engaging the mining sector in order to advance the interests of Indigenous communities.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight legislative and procedural problems with the implementation across England and Wales of Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs).

Through a review of current and planned PSPOs across England and Wales.

A patchwork quilt of unenforceable and vague legislation will only cause enforcement agencies to become confused and for potentially innocent people to be convicted.

The author does not believe any similar papers have been published.

The objective of this chapter is twofold. It first introduces the theme of the book. There are many ways of looking at socially responsible investment (SRI). It can be viewed as a financial product where the financial performance is the outmost important aspect and cannot be compromised. Or it can be regarded as a force for change to promote and stimulate a more sustainable development. In this chapter we provide a literature review on SRI especially on the notion of the impact and how it has been addressed so far in the literature. The second objective of the chapter is to provide an overview of the volume by introducing each chapter.

This chapter reviews the literature on SRI as well as the chapters included in this volume.

If SRI is about making a change toward sustainability, we ought to study its societal and environmental impacts. Although scholar articles on SRI have gained importance in the two last decades, very little is known on its impact. Research has developed from a narrow concern with negative screening and divestment in isolated cases to a rigorous analysis of its financial performance across a range of ethical and ESG issues. While we have identified some studies that are beginning to explore the potential impact of SRI for society, this remains a crucial area to explore.

The chapter contributes to the debates on the societal impact of SRI, a debate that needs to be continued even if or just because it raises some fundamental questions that are complex and difficult but also necessary to advance SRI.

This paper revisits the claim of Vinten (1993) in this journal that whistleblowing is achieving prominence as a question of social policy.

It examines literature from social and health policy to focus on the importance of whistleblowing and the policies that may encourage whistleblowing. However, it finds little extant academic literature in social policy, and so it turns to examine documents on whistleblowing in the British National Health Service such as NHS Inquiries, Parliamentary Debates, Parliamentary Committee Reports and government documents.

It is found that whistleblowing has not achieved prominence as a question of social policy in nearly 30 years since Vinten's argument. However, it argues that whistleblowing should be an issue for social policy as it is clear that whistleblowing can save lives.

It supports the growing Parliamentary agenda for legislative change for whistleblowers.

This is one of the first articles on whistleblowing in a Social Policy journal for nearly 30 years and provides an argument that the discipline should pay more attention to a topic that can save lives.

This article exploits British Household Panel Survey data to explore trends in subjective well‐being of young people aged 11‐15 over the period 1994‐2008. Two dimensions of subjective well‐being are measured using multi‐dimensional scales representing ‘happiness’ and ‘selfesteem’. This 14‐year period has seen many changes in the environment of young people that may have had an impact on their well‐being, including economic growth, increases in parental employment and major efforts to improve social policy for children. Has all this activity had an impact on what young people say about their lives? The evidence from this analysis suggests that there has been an improvement in the average level of happiness of 11‐15 year‐olds over time, especially for girls. It is impossible to draw clear conclusions about the causes of this improvement in happiness but there is some evidence that it focused on relationships with friends and happiness with school.

European Union (EU) indicators on poverty and social exclusion employ only two child breakdowns: the proportion of children living in households with incomes below 60% of the national median using the modified OECD equivalence scale and the proportion of children living in workless households. The UK also uses these indicators in the Opportunities for All series. This article first develops a new indicator of child poverty based on income, subjective and deprivation indicators which may be more reliable than income alone. It then explores the extent to which income poverty and worklessness represent international variation in child well‐being using an index that we have developed. The conclusions are that: (1) relative income poverty and worklessness are poor indicators of child well‐being, especially for some of the new EU countries; (2) deprivation has a stronger association with overall well‐being than relative income poverty or worklessness; (3) there are a number of other single indicators of child well‐being that could be used as proxies for overall child well‐being; and (4) The EU (and the UK) could easily develop its own index of child well‐being.