Beyond economic sustainability: embedding social and environmental values in the governance of responsible investment

The transition of global financial markets towards investment models that incorporate environmental and social dimensions is now well underway. This paper discusses the evolution of contemporary responsible investment (RI) and its relationship to sustainable development and environmental social governance(ESG). In the conception of ESG presented here, various well-known institutional arrangements, most notably interest representation, accountability and transparency, decision-making, and implementation are linked to the structures and processes of governance. Using a hierarchical framework of principles, criteria and indicators (PC&I), the paper presents a means for evaluating RI by way of an analysis of stakeholder perceptions regarding the sector’s governance quality. It concludes with some observations on the challenges confronting RI, notably the need for universally consistent quality of governance standards

Enumeration of rational plane curves tangent to a smooth cubic

We use twisted stable maps to compute the number of rational degree d plane curves having prescribed contacts to a smooth plane cubic.Comment: 27 pages, v2: typos corrected and references adde

The New Urban Spiritual? Tentative Framings for a Debate and a Project

AHRC-funded project 'The Urban Spiritual: Placing Spiritual Practices in Context' (AH/H009108/1), Working Paper #1

Evaluation of fostering network Scottish care mentoring projects

Looked after children and young people are some of the most vulnerable in our society. For Scotland’s Children highlighted the ‘continuing failure of many local authorities as ‘corporate parents’ to provide these young people with the care and education they are entitled to by law’ (Scottish Executive, 2001, p. 10). One of the major issues facing looked after young people is the process of transition from care to independence. It is a time when they have ‘a right to expect the sort of help that loving parents would provide for their children, help to reach their full potential, and the same chance to make mistakes secure in the knowledge that there is a safety net of support’ (Jamieson, 2002, p. 2). However, over a number of years, research has highlighted the poor outcomes for children leaving care. Longitudinal studies which have followed up children and young people in care as part of national cohort studies present the stark contrast in life outcomes between those who have experienced care and those who have not. Cheung and Heath (1994) compare these two groups at age 33. Only one fifth of those who had been in care had achieved O levels compared to one-third of those who had not; only half as many had achieved A levels. Only one in a hundred of those who had been in care achieved a university degree compared to one on ten of those who had not. Two fifths of those who had been in care had no formal qualifications compared to one in seven (Cheung and Heath, 1994). This lack of qualifications converted into lack of success in the job market with three times as many being unemployed (10.8 % compared to 3.6 %) and larger proportions having manual jobs as opposed to professional or non-manual jobs