Today almost every country in the world has an investment promotion agency (IPA) to attract and retain foreign investment. In principle, IPAs could be an important tool in advancing the sustainable development agenda, as they provide a country-led, domestically legitimate means of catalyzing new foreign investments. We argue that IPAs’ governance structures condition their potential contribution to sustainable development, by leading them to privilege certain ideas and interests over others. Specifically, IPAs that are more autonomous from the government bureaucracy tend to prioritise activities to increase overall inflows of foreign investment, while IPAs that are more integrated into the government bureaucracy are more likely to structure their activities in ways that prioritise their countries’ industrial policy goals. Evidence from World Bank surveys of IPA officials and a case study of Costa Rica’s IPA demonstrate how agencies’ governance structures incentivise them to approach their mandates in different ways, which in turn influences their contribution to sustainable, inclusive development. This research enriches our understanding of investment promotion as a tool for sustainable development and contributes to ongoing debates on how states manage economic globalisation.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established under the 2030 Agenda espouse a notion of sustainable development articulated along three integrated dimensions: economic development, social development and environmental protection. When exploring relevant trade regimes, the 2030 Agenda considers exclusively the role of the WTO. In this way, significant evolutions in the international trade agenda are overlooked, in particular the growing efforts on the conclusion of trade liberalisation deals on a preferential basis. One distinctive feature of these negotiations is the emergence of a common will to reach an agreement on sustainable development issues. As a result, most recent preferential trade agreements (PTAs) usually include a chapter on trade and sustainable development (TSD) covering both the promotion of labour rights and the protection of the environment. In view of this evolution, the question arises as to whether and to what extent the PTAs contribute to the attainment of the SDGs. Against this background, this chapter offers a legal appraisal of the environmental provisions included in the TSD chapters of the latest EU PTAs. This practice is relevant, in view of the role the EU has been playing in the setting of the current network of PTAs and in the negotiations for multilateral environmental agreements.

The international community has acknowledged that international trade can be an effective means of helping to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Traditionally, preferential trade agreements (PTAs) were designed to promote trade flows. PTAs have become more comprehensive and now also cover non-economic policy areas, such as the environment. This chapter examines whether the inclusion of environmental provisions in PTAs changes the observed overall positive contribution that PTAs make to economic outcomes and thereby to the economic objectives of the SDGs. Specifically, we ask whether the inclusion of environmental provisions in PTAs reduces export flows between PTA partner countries. Using a novel data set on environmental provisions in PTAs, we estimate gravity type panel regressions. We find that membership in PTAs including more environmental provisions is associated with less trade among trade partners compared to PTAs that include less or no environmental provisions. This negative effect of environmental provisions is fully driven by the negative effect on South–North trade flows, i.e. exports from developing to high-income countries.

This chapter assesses whether the EU’s recent empowerment to conclude international investment agreements has made these agreements more development-friendly. Focusing on the EU’s choice of partner countries, substantive protection and treatment provisions as well as procedural provisions on investor-to-state dispute settlement, the chapter finds that the EU’s international investment agreements (IIAs) have indeed become more development-friendly in comparison to the international investment agreements of EU member states. They strengthen state interests vis-à-vis investor interests. The chapter tests whether these policy changes are due to European law obligations applying to EU international investment agreements, increased politicisation of IIA policy-making in the context of EU’s Common Commercial Policy, or the aggregation of diverse member state preferences into a common European approach. It finds that politicisation and aggregation of member state preferences primarily fuelled policy changes while legal obligations played no significant role. From a theoretical perspective, the chapter lends support to rational choice institutionalism, which suggest that institutional changes affect policy substance.

The emergence of blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt nearly anything from voting to healthcare, but could it help deliver the Sustainable Development Goals? International trade has been identified as an instrument in achieving these goals but in practice bottlenecks and trade frictions persist. This chapter aims to illuminate how blockchain technology can smooth three stubborn trade frictions: trade finance gaps, low preference utilisation, and customs frictions. We detail the channels through which blockchain technology can smooth these trade frictions. We then estimate the magnitude of potential economic effects and consider their contributions to these goals. We also discuss how policymakers can create an ecosystem to facilitate these advancements in trade and sustainable development.

This chapter assesses whether the law and practice of the WTO have been sufficiently aligning with the international law principle of sustainable use of natural resources as enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and recognized in the International Law Association New Delhi Declaration. Focusing on how relevant WTO rules and exceptions have been interpreted in recent WTO cases revolving around the notion of conservation under Article XX(g) General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and Article 2 Technical Barriers to Trade, it finds that such provisions have been interpreted in a way that preserves sufficient flexibility for members to pursue sustainable natural resources management goals through trade-related policy instruments (even when they are unilateral measures with extraterritorial reach). Interestingly enough from a sustainable natural resources management standpoint, the chapter stresses that WTO dispute settlement bodies have not only consistently broadened the reach of the GATT conservation exception in line with the principle of sustainable use of natural resources, but also significantly preserved the ‘environmental’ (i.e. conservation-related) connotation of sustainable natural resources management.

Chapter 5 focuses on the Design phase of the BLL development framework. This phase deals with macro-level structure and process. The design phase has two main purposes: identifying the characteristics of the target learners and the contextual factors surrounding them through a needs analysis. The chapter also establishes realistic course goals, achievable teaching objectives, and measurable learning outcomes at the course level.

Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) seek to improve social and economic outcomes in developing nations through voluntary commitments by firms located in these countries, who can advertise their adherence to the standard through certification and associated labels. VSS are a potential instrument to help achieve some of the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but the current empirical evidence on their effectiveness is mixed. Distinguishing between Fair Trade VSS developed by non-governmental organizations and corporate-backed private VSS, this chapter disentangles the possible channels through which these two types of VSS regimes may impact on trade and, in turn, on SDGs. We review the evidence in the light of these channels, finding important differences between the two categories of VSS.

Progress to date has varied between different sub-disciplines and this final chapter will touch on common themes throughout. Psychology as a discipline has much to gain from the digital age, especially following the mass adoption of smartphohes. Software development is an entire discipline within itself, but even comparatively simple smartphone apps that collect minimal data can be highly revealing of everyday behaviour. However, we face numerous challenges that go beyond technological development. Some of these issues pretain to theorising and replication, while others concern the scientific climate in which we operate. Most of these issues are not unique to research involving new technology, but they become more apparent as the speed of innovation accelerates. As a result, we appear to carry very little understanding forward to the next mass-adopted innovation.

By reflecting on past successes and failures, this chapter provides guidance on how psychological research can become more productive and break free from tired cycles of research. More importantly, if psychological science can re-align existing priorities and embrace the digital age, it has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

This chapter explores dual senses of “being there,” as existential fact and corollary method, and suggests some reasons why and how an ecological framework provides an effective approach to unpacking the culture–mind–brain nexus. First, an ecological analysis brings the lens of evolutionary design to bear on human biology (brain), function (mind), and behavior (culture). Second, it taps reliance of developmental processes on nested timelines of interaction with context that drive physical (body/brain), functional (mind), and behavioral (enculturation) development across the life course. Third, it hones in on conditions created by humans’ reliance on culture, thereby creating their own ecologies that, in turn, generate tremendous human diversity. Being there can also play a valuable research role. Three case studies explore that role in interaction with existing bodies of knowledge, major societal and scientific questions, and studies with novel human cultures and ecologies. They also sketch an arc of inquiry that integrates biomarkers and health outcomes with measures of psychosocial dynamics and life course development into population research embedded in community and cultural settings. A dialectical ecologically informed approach that fluidly deploys diverse modes of research may be particularly effective for tackling the large questions and challenges that humans confront.

Much of the research discussed previously will have relied on participants consenting to have data collected from their smartphone. However, smartphones continue to pose an inherent security risk within and beyond research. They also provide ways in which criminals can operate and communicate across larger networks. Despite the majority of devices holding large quantities of personal information, many people continue to ignore advice when it comes to securing their device. This is particularly problematic when it comes to carrying out tasks on unsecured networks. Malware can also gain access to a smartphone and compromise its function.

The popularity of smartphones provide another digital outlet for illegal data capture and this chapter will consider why, despite multiple security concerns, the majority of smartphone users and even large organisations are unable to recognise the importance of developing sound security practices. A second stand considers how psychologists and software developers are attempting to improve the security of existing devices and encourage security focused beahviours. While data in the digital age can be tremendously valuable for research purposes, developing good practice remains essential when developing software that collects sensitive data from smartphones and associated devices.

This chapter outlines the development of English dictionaries in Canada as expressions of the national variety of Canadian English. Four stages of dictionary development in Canadian English are identified. The role of and dependency on publishing houses in the field's development is surveyed. This dependency led, ultimately, to what is called the Great Canadian Dictionary War. A handful of less widely known dictionaries that were important in Canada’s lexicographical development are discussed in some detail, and numerical methods are used to analyse developments within the Canadian dictionary market since the late 1970s.

Far from a crisis that could not be predicted and that cannot be resolved, the so-called Mediterranean migration crisis of 2015–2016 can be understood as a foreseeable result of the production of death and vulnerability, whereby those who escape across the Mediterranean Sea by boat are either left to perish en route or are rescued only to arrive to EU territory as casualties or survivors. This chapter builds on the analysis in Chapter 1 in order to develop further understanding of this process, specifically by exploring the policy mechanisms and power dynamics through which death and vulnerability are rendered normal (i.e. regular and accepted). It examines policy developments within the EU in terms of different mechanisms of prevention, rescue and containment, to highlight the ways in which instruments that monitor, filter and channel migration expose people on the move to various harms without recourse to rights. Showing how such harms are perpetuated across both the security and humanitarian domains, the chapter draws on works that analyse the co-constitution of border security and humanitarianism to emphasise the ways in which a form of humanitarian government is implicated in a politics that seeks to secure home. However, it also draws attention to the limits of an approach that overlooks the importance of humanitarian politics, which involves more far-reaching contestations over what it means to be human. Highlighting the challenges that are posed to a humanitarian politics where the Mediterranean Sea itself plays a crucial role in practices of governing migration, the chapter concludes by exploring how different dynamics of power become blurred through a form of biophysical violence that operates directly on the biological functions of migrating bodies.

Educators and school psychologists are seeking ways to eliminate race and gender disparities in their school discipline. This chapter offers the Framework for Increasing Equity in School Discipline to guide their efforts in reforming discipline policy and practices. The principles are comprehensive, with an emphasis on both prevention and intervention. They identify the characteristics of classrooms and schools that need to be strengthened to prevent disciplinary interactions. With regard to intervention, they call for student and adult development of social and behavioral skills, equitable access to adult support, and a problem-solving approach to conflict that integrates family and student voice. Together, the principles show promise for reducing the use of exclusionary discipline and the punitive treatment of marginalized students.

To enhance math achievement, numerous instructional strategies have been and will continue to be developed. Neither typical instructional procedures nor new methods for teaching math will be successful unless students choose to engage in assigned math activities. Two factors that can influence choice are response effort and reinforcement strength. Enhancing students’ basic math fact fluency can reduce the effort required to complete simple and more complex math tasks, making it more likely that students will choose to engage in math activities. Four evidence-based procedures designed to enhance basic math fact fluency are described (i.e., Cover, Copy, and Compare; Taped Problems; Explicit Timing; and Detect, Practice, and Repair). Also, procedures designed to enhance reinforcement for choosing to engage in math tasks are reviewed. These procedures include the Additive Interspersal Procedure, altering longer assignments into multiple briefer assignments, and applying interdependent group-oriented bonus rewards.

The Prologue begins with the factors the Nauru Constitutional Review Commission Report of 2007 identified as responsible for the Republic’s contemporary economic and political precarity. In a UNDP-funded constitutional referendum in 2010, the Nauruan community overwhelmingly rejected proposed amendments to Nauru’s 1968 Constitution that were designed to address those factors. The Prologue describes the author’s involvement in the referendum campaign, and introduces the history of Australian, British and German imperial interventions in the Pacific region, and Australia’s use of Nauru as a site for offshore processing of asylum seekers who arrive in Australian waters by sea.