As a place that ‘plays to all the senses’,2 Soho has, throughout its history, been something of an abject space, maintaining a long-standing appeal as simultaneously alluring and threatening, exploiting many of those who work and consume there, while at the same time carefully nurturing its reputation as a place of bohemian indulgence, offering a warm embrace and a sense of belonging in the heart of an otherwise relatively anonymous urban environment. In his Foreword to Bernie Katz’s book Soho Society, Stephen Fry emphasizes this, highlighting how the area has always offered ‘outsiders’ a chance to be themselves: ‘Soho’s public face of drugs, prostitution and seedy Bohemia … has always hidden a private soul of family, neighbourhood, kindness, warmth and connection, and those qualities shine through doggedly.’ Yet Soho also has an enduring reputation for violence and exploitation.

The chapter draws on the legal, institutional and stakeholder perspectives to develop a septet framework that provides clarity to the concept of sustainable consumption and production and aligns consumer protection to sustainable development in developing countries. This contextualises the roles of consumers and corporations as institutional actors and consumption as an institution. The chapter uniquely unbundles the concept as consisting of six foundational components: sustainable consumption by proximate consumers for future generations; sustainable production for future generations; sustainable consumption by/for proximate consumers; sustainable production for proximate consumers; participation by proximate consumers; and CSR. The septet framework challenges conventional approaches to consumer vulnerability, disclosure regulation, contract law, consumer responsibilisation, stakeholder, corporate governance, institutional voids and international cooperation. The chapter’s interventionist consumer protection law approach includes public interest-oriented disclosure regulation, distributive justice-oriented contract law, resolution of business-to-consumer information asymmetry, credible corporate social reporting and certification standards, distributed/shared consumer responsibilisation, stakeholder enforcement rights, obligations and protection, independent stakeholder determination of standards, resolution of related agency problems through a stakeholder approach to corporate governance and international cooperation in regulatory standards and enforcement. It is also argued that a consumer protection approach to sustainable development can promote stakeholder engagement and meaningful corporate social responsibility.

CSR and sustainability practices play a significant role across diverse sectors of an economy. This chapter examines corporate social responsibility and sustainable development in the informal economy. Through the review of the literature, the chapter establishes that unregistered micro, small, and medium enterprises mainly dominate the informal sector particularly in developing and emerging economies. The low degree of formalisation and other specific attributes common to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in the informal sector, influence their CSR approach and strategies. The chapter discusses the need to build social capital (trust, reputation and legitimacy) and culture as motivating factors that promote SMEs involvement in CSR practices, while legislation and institutional context are major drivers of sustainability practices. The chapter highlights how the informal economy, particularly in the context of SMEs, can be positioned to be more socially and environmentally responsible.

This chapter explores the importance of critical reflection on human experience. Critical reflection is not an innate human quality and so must be cultivated. What distinguishes critical reflection from simple reflection is the assessment of one’s assumptions, especially hegemonic assumptions, those deeply ingrained presumptions about existing power relationships in society. Critical reflection is important throughout all aspects of human learning, including the development of expertise and the incidental learning that happens every day, usually below our conscious awareness.

Deep learning changes one’s perspective on how the world works and, by extension, how one should be in the world. Thus, whenever new knowledge threatens to disturb the existing political equilibrium, learning becomes a political act. This chapter considers the work of Paulo Freire, Myles Horton, Michel Foucault, and John Dewey, and ends with four recommendations for making political dynamics more conducive to deep learning: identify existing systems of power relationships, surface hegemonic assumptions, speak truth to power, and cultivate procedural justice.

The informal economy is the source of livelihood for the teeming population of low-income earners in developing economies. Several studies have been conducted on the informal economy’s impact on Africa’s economic development and the neglect of the sector by the government in policy decisions. However, studies on social responsibility in businesses have largely neglected discourse on socially responsible practices in the informal sector, especially in Nigeria. In this regard, this chapter seeks to contribute to the limited extant literature on small business social responsibility in developing economies – specifically Nigeria – and how the exposition of such practices could contribute immensely to the sustainable development of the country. Employing the qualitative research methodology, the study explored how informal businesses conceive of socially responsible practice; what specific social responsibility they adopt; and how these practices could advance the sustainable development of the country. Findings from the study highlighted apprenticeship and credit sales as the major practices informal businesses engage in while also noting that such practices are integrated into the daily operations of informal businesses rather than as a separate department. The authors finally made some linkages between informal social responsibility and sustainable development and advanced some recommendations on the subject matter.

Institutional theory has been used in the study of CSR in developing countries. The chapter offers an insightful new conceptual framework that shows how differing expressions of CSR in developing countries are shaped by the institutional dimensions of the developing country’s institutional context. The chapter proposes a review of the application of institutional theory for CSR in developing countries and how the different comparative CSR frameworks have been used mostly for developed countries. Rather than using existing comparative institutional models such as Varieties of Capitalism (VOC) or National Business System (NBS), the chapter proposes a new theoretical lens to explore CSR in developing countries. Varieties of institutional systems (VIS) aims to expand the conversation on comparative institutional perspectives for CSR in developing countries. The chapter proposes a novel conceptual framework that combines Varieties of Institutional Systems (VIS) theoretical framework with the heterogeneous expressions of CSR in developing countries. This novel conceptual framework is used to explore which expressions of CSR should be implemented by firms in developing countries, depending on the VIS institutional dimensions. Based on the developing country’s institutional context and its institutional dimensions, described by the VIS framework, firms need to adopt a specific expression of CSR in developing countries.

The chapter will provide an original and innovative insight into sustainable finance by analysing social movements’ interaction with complex finance dynamics (CFDs) through elements of trustworthiness. In doing so, the paper will draw on data from an empirical qualitative study that traced the involvement of social movements in shaping three major legal CFDs, namely project finance, bond finance and pension finance on the sustainable finance market between 2015 and 2018. It will argue that social movements, who are, by tradition, in conflict with dominant paradigms, pose a perceptible competitive challenge to major stakeholders who shape the finance dynamics. Whilst the utilisation of the trustworthiness analytical framework proves useful in uncovering the conflict, it serves the main purpose of demonstrating the analytic competition between social movements and the major stakeholders. The author argues that social movements should take a more responsible stance towards sustainable finance and, logically, adopt a form of responsible principles that will govern their relationship with the major stakeholders shaping the CFDs. Further, the author drafts principles in this chapter and argues that, if adopted by social movements, these will improve their competitive advantage on the fast-paced sustainable finance market.

The chapter examines these standard form salvage contracts against the backdrop of sustainable development and whether they provide an appropriate balance between environmental protection and commercial outcomes in the narrow (the interests of salvors and property owners) and wider sense. It is shown that modern salvage operations involve at least two of the three recognised interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable development (economic development, social development and environmental protection). The chapter illustrates the challenges faced by salvors in commercial salvage operations as the ones tasked with the furthering of potentially divergent interests (environmental and commercial) and explores the linkages between salvage operations and sustainable development. It examines environmental provisions in the LOF and SCOPIC demonstrating that while these contracts provide a de facto furthering of environmental outcomes, this is incidental to the commercial interests of the contracting parties. The contracts provide no direct basis to promote the environmental protection interests of third-party stakeholders. The chapter argues that the use of the stipulatio alteri could provide such a direct legal basis to address external stakeholders’ interests in environmental protection while ensuring an integrated and sustainable balancing with economic endeavour.