Building upon issues identified in the preceding chapter, Chapter 2 delves into tensions stemming from divergent political ideologies, economic objectives and legal methods that come into play in the interpretation and implementation of international investment agreements. Tensions between different actors and their perspectives on these issues are also considered. The aim is to provide reflection on different issues that occupy the current debate on international investment regulation and challenges encountered when addressing them.

Our final chapter concludes the book by summarizing the findings from our studies of the political economy of S&T and innovation in China, discussing tensions faced by China through the perspective of the political economy in the studies of S&T and innovation in China, and drawing some governance implications for the political economic study of China’s S&T and innovation in general.

In the concluding chapter of the book, we reflect on the future of corporate sustainability. We summarise the key topics covered in each of the four sections – approaches, actors, processes and issues. We present past and future developments for each of these sections. We also reflect on how some of the tensions as presented in the introduction remain and become core to corporate sustainability debates. Finally, we end on a reflection of our personal roles in advancing sustainability.

In Chapter 8, we consider how the arrival of a first child impacted on or shaped the couple relationship. Specifically, we contrast the assumption that having a child will bring a couple closer together with the reality of the many challenges that a new child can bring with them. To do this, we look closely at three of the couples we interviewed, as broadly indicative of the range of the experiences of the couples. For some, the couple experienced a strong supportive relationship across the transition to new parenthood. For others, the arrival of a baby exacerbated existing challenges, and for some new challenges arose. Often these challenges were specifically gendered, related to women’s expectations about men’s involvement, and men’s shifting views about how they would be involved. While these challenges often resolved themselves with time and after increased communication in the couple, they presented the couple relationship with an often unexpected weight that had to be grappled with.

In this chapter we set out to analyse the rich and diverse stream which makes up the topic of routines as truces. This involves addressing not only those contributions which directly deal with the construct of truces and their dynamics, but also those for which truces might not be the central focus but which have contributed to our understanding of truce dynamics through the lens of related concepts. These topics include the influence of conflicting interests, goals and motivations; the emergence and resolution of tensions and struggles between and across organizational communities and culture(s); and the role of artifacts and materiality in addressing organizational conflict.