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This study examined the factors militating against walking as a form of active mobility in Akure, Nigeria. For questionnaire administration, from the 548,315 population of Akure, two hundred and seventy-four (274) household heads representing 0.05% of the entire population of Akure were sampled with the aid of a structured and self-administered questionnaire using a systematic sampling technique. The elicited data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. From the analysis, the major impediments to walking were the socio-cultural belief that anybody walking was poor, followed by accessibility to motorised transport, and inadequate pedestrian facilities. These situations have significantly deterred people from seeing walking as an active form of mobility in the study area. Thus, the study recommends a strong sensitisation and awareness programme to robustly enlighten people on the need to embrace walking as a form of urban mobility. Also, the government should adequately and sustainably invest more in pedestrian facilities that will promote the culture of walking among people and/or road users in Akure, Nigeria. More importantly, for inclusiveness in urban planning, road infrastructure should be designed alongside other road elements to ensure seamless negotiations between pedestrians and vehicles without any form of conflict.

This chapter examines the plight of Bangladeshi labourers after experiencing labour trafficking during irregular migration via a perilous maritime route to Malaysia in 2015, most of them involved in the Andaman Sea crisis. Their journey and their experiences of trauma are examined at four stages of their journey; pre-commencement/commencement; being trafficked and sold as a batch; at the transfer point when extortion of their families at home occurs, and at the end of their journey as returnees to Bangladesh (the large majority never reaching their destination). The theoretical framework helps highlight the significance of culture on the trauma experienced by the returnees in the broad context of economic and social pressures. It also leverages the individual/collectivism model from cultural psychology, self-discrepancy and resiliency theory to explain how individuals respond to and deal with such trauma, with implications for government policy and NGO support (both pro-active and re-active responses).

In 2015, the United Nations approved the 2030 Agenda defining 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and 169 targets. Among those, the target 12.6 encourages companies to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle. Thus, the aim of this paper is to understand whether ISO certification is a determinant factor in SDGs reporting. Standalone non-financial reports of the largest Portuguese companies were collected from 2016 until 2020, obtaining a total of 119 reports from 41 companies: 27 (22.7%) of the reports corresponds to non-certified companies and 92 (77.3%) to certified ones. Through a content analysis of the non-financial reports, an SDG disclosure Index (SDG_IND) was developed, to measure the level of disclosure on SDG. A set of panel data based on a Tobit regression analysis was applied, in STATA software, using the total of observations during the period 2016–2020, to verify if the variable ISO certification explains the level of SDGs disclosure. Contrary to our expectation, we did not find significant differences between certified and non-certified companies concerning the SDG-related disclosure. As far as we are aware, previous research in SDG has not considered the linkage with ISO certification. This article aims to explore this gap by investigating differences between certified and non-certified companies, regarding SDG disclosure, as whether ISO certification is a determinant factor of such disclosure.

The decentralisation of administrative power has been accepted as a more efficient system of managing their population in their own territories. Broadly speaking, almost all governmental and non-governmental organisations are converging on the need to transfer increasingly autonomous, endogenous, and autotrophic powers or functions to localities. Although locations are closer to people and problems, they have fewer resources, whether financial, human, or technological, which makes it difficult to obtain data and consequently make decisions. Several reasons allow the decision to be taken under political principles or others that are more difficult to legitimise. Cadastral purposes have historically been related to tax policy or taxes levied on real estate. In recent studies, it has been published that the cadastre is not only useful for taxation and real estate taxation but may also be useful for interventions that government authorities define for urban and rural development. In this paper, we address the relationships between these topics, namely, the municipalisation of some functions of the State, the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) and the bases for correct decision-making based on useful information obtained by cadastral strategies. The methodology uses Gastil's theoretical model applied to cadastral system, Latour's Actor-Network Theory, and the concepts of citizen participation and open government to validate the cadastre as an interesting component for the implementation of collective initiatives aligned with the SDG. The results show that public policies need to be legitimised in the eyes of citizens and that in their eyes it is not enough just to improve the quality of their results, it is necessary to legitimise them from their conception, planning, and implementation.

Culture (traditional or organisational) has tended to be either a resource or an impediment to socio-economic development (SED) because culture plays an important role in the socio-economic sphere. This study investigates traditional culture that influences SED in light of the prevailing socio-economic situation in the Kingdom of Eswatini (Previously known as the Kingdom of Swaziland). Based on the existing demographics and political state, most people of the Kingdom live in rural areas, where traditional culture is predominant, and poverty is prevalent. That justifies their advocacy for SED influenced by cultural and traditional structures as opposed to one influenced by the internationally inclined modern democratic structures. This study used quantitative approaches and collected data from 30 ‘SED initiatives’. Results of the study indicate that traditional cultural influence is most prevalent in rural communities, while the adoption of the new national constitution in 2005 brought an insignificant change in the way culture influences SED. It was also noted that cultural governance, cultural tourism, customs and traditions, gender discrimination and marginalisation of people living with disabilities are the main existing components relating to the area of the central phenomenon. Further findings indicate that Eswatini culture is largely epitomised by the existence of the Monarchy authority, as a wide range of beliefs, customs and traditions are entrenched in the core values of the same. This infers that the Kingdom of Eswatini is predominated by socio-cultural values, which necessitates a telling influence on SED issues.

The term corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not new as it has its root in the past, but now it becomes more complicated today. It has been observed that CSR is the building block of social capital and globalisation is the main factor which has forced the market and business to interact with the people either they are from their own place or from different part of the country. At the time of interaction, people interact with the differences of their cultures, beliefs and they have different hopes from the companies and its place in society. This reality of interaction with many differences provides us a direction to explore the cross-cultural variations and to know how it helps in creating the social responsibility policy by the government in different countries and its implementation by business people, employees and other stakeholders. This theoretical review is aimed to explore the role of institutionalisation theory for increasing the social capital and ensuring positive CSR practices in cross-cultural scenario.

The concern with Corporate Social Responsibility has been increasing both by academics and politicians, as well as by companies and people in general, associated with the future of the next generations. Companies and organisations are increasingly aware that a differentiating factor nowadays is to be socially responsible and consequently to be certified in this area, helping them to grow and increase their notoriety and competitiveness. Companies that create and implement a Social Responsibility Management System have several advantages: increased brand recognition and consequent turnover, increased sales, improved relationship with their employees, increased competitive advantage in the market and helps the world to become better, through practices and application of current standards (IMR, 2019). Given the above it is intended in this study to identify and describe the requirements necessary for the implementation of a Social Responsibility Management System, according to the NP 4469:2019 standard, in a company in the textile industry. As a result of this proposal of SGRS in a company of workwear and personal protective equipment manufacturing, it was possible to see that the management of social responsibility can be a resource and key element to achieve success, with commitment from management and participation of all employees in decisions taken to improve the future of the company.

The issues raised in this chapter are primarily those of obfuscation regarding social and economic inequality in the UK. The chapter is about the way discourse in various forms serves to disguise and justify the huge inequalities in this society; legitimising and ‘naturalising’ them, or in Arendt's words ‘lying’ about them so that they are seen as ‘natural and self-evident’ (Alvesson & Deetz, 2006, p. 261). Issues looked at are the institutional arrangements by which government ministers give or withhold resources to and from certain categories of its citizens. This includes the UK Treasury in relation to which economic groups the Chancellor of the Exchequer decides how much to tax or not to tax. In particular what are examined are the discourses justifying these measures and establishing certain ‘truths’ about how things are economically and socially; which categories are entitled to or deserving of certain kinds of resources and which are not – argued here as constituting obfuscations of the ‘actual’ situation. Obfuscation has been defined as the action of making something obscure, unclear, or unintelligible. This, arguably, is not far removed, from the action of being deliberately untruthful or lying. The question then arises as to how close these discourses come to lying and how serious the inequalities are.

The Third Sector has been receiving increasing attention from society, including academics, due to its importance in the face of the lack of government responses to many of the social problems that affect contemporary societies. Theoretically, the State is supposed to highlight the importance of the services provided by Social Solidarity Institutions, given their proximity to the beneficiaries, the efficiency in the distribution of resources and their innovative attitude towards social problems and needs. As a logical consequence, society is witnessing an increase in the participation of the private sector in social issues and a greater professionalisation of the Third Sector in the search for sustainability. Within the Third Sector, Social Solidarity Institutions play a very important role, acting as social actors. Within the environment of Social Solidarity Institutions, the Misericórdias also play a very important role. ‘Misericórdia’ is a non-profit institution that takes a form of charity, very popular in some countries, such as Italy and especially in Portugal. However, there are few studies on the governance conditions of this type of institution. In addition, it is possible to discuss whether there is any study that focuses specifically on this type of analysis. This study fills the empirical gap in the existing literature, providing an insight into the ways of adopting governance practices and principles within these institutions, which over five centuries of existence have continuously worked towards a more just, inclusive and supportive society.