Social impact assessment: Politically oriented approaches and applications

Craig, Donna

doi:10.1016/0195-9255(90)90005-k

Cited by 52 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…The dominant, 'technical' approach to SIA practice is concerned with the objective measurement of the possible social consequences of a given development, and communicating these findings to decision-makers whose decisions rely on this 'value-free' information. Reflecting a wider trend toward citizen participation in policy and planning, and recognizing the value-laden, political dimensions of environmental decision-making, the 'political' model of SIA seeks to understand the explicit and implicit value dimensions involved in land development (Craig, 1990).…”

Section: Contested Environmental Decisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sacred land, mineral wealth, and biodiversity at Coronation Hill, Northern Australia: indigenous knowledge and SIA

Lane

Ross

Dale

et al. 2003

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal

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This paper is concerned with the role of social impact assessment (SIA) in the resolution of an environmental conflict involving demands for the conservation of an ecologically significant area, a proposal to exploit mineral wealth, and the concerns of indigenous custodians who feared damage to sacred lands. This is a case in which the knowledge claims of key protagonists were deeply politicized and contested, and in which the process of decision-making was itself the subject of controversy and debate. The paper reviews the case, emphasizing the roles of western and indigenous epistemologies in decisionmaking. It presents an approach to SIA that addresses these epistemological issues and ensures the articulation of indigenous knowledge to governmental decision-makers.

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Section: Contested Environmental Decisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sacred land, mineral wealth, and biodiversity at Coronation Hill, Northern Australia: indigenous knowledge and SIA

Lane

Ross

Dale

et al. 2003

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal

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“…As demonstrated in Solomon Islands, SIA application is largely stemmed in the technocratic approach. Craig (1990) describes the technocratic approach as placing emphasis on the product rather than the process of SIA, with experts having the dominant role in decision making and citizens are seen as 'consumers'. This framing can legitimise the actions of experts and exclude the questioning of dominant Western knowledge, which since they are not often discussed in SIAs and the SIA literature, are imposed as universal (Aledo-Tur and Dominguez-Gomez, 2017).…”

Section: Scales Of Knowledge: a Hierarchy?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The need to identify and assess impacts of development intervention on indigenous communities was brought to light in the 1970s, through the Berger Inquiry 29 . The Inquiry is considered to have paved the way for legitimising indigenous knowledge and addressing social justice concerns (Christensen and Grant, 2007), and for recognising that infrastructure development is not simply about the project, but about the future of communities and its peoples (Berger, 1977 (Pope et al, 2013 environmental, and economic impact of a proposed gas pipeline, by drawing on personal accounts with project-affected peoples (Gamble, 1978 Notable scholars who contributed to the early SIA literature, including that which attempted to situate SIA in theory, included Friesema andCulhane (1976), Derman andWhiteford (1985), Howitt (1989), Henry (1990), Craig (1990) and Rickson et al (1990). For example, Rickson et al (1990) explore the sociological theory underpinning SIA and stress that recognition of power relations and context are the key determinants for the success of SIA.…”

Section: The Institutionalisation Of Siamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While some international informants expressed that poor SIA application could be due to miscommunication at the local scale, there was little recognition at the international scale that the knowledge gap is due to culturally disparate knowledge and governance systems. Almost three decades ago, Craig (1990) recognises this cultural gap in knowledge, stated that it is "difficult for indigenous voices to be heard when there is a cultural gap between them and decision makers" (p. 49).…”

Section: (National Government Officer)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This paradigm views impacts as real and objective, and assumes that with sufficient data, accurate predictions can be made by those trained in the social science of impact assessment (Aledo-Tur and Dominguez- Gomez, 2017). Craig (1990) (Esteves et al, 2012;de Rijke, 2013;Wong and Ho, 2015) and the role of SIA in organisational settings as a tool for enhancing social performance of corporations and their reputations (Esteves, 2008;Kemp, 2009;Harvey and Bice, 2014). According to Vanclay (2003), SIA practitioners refer to people who "practice the methodology of SIA and undertake associated social and environmental research to inform the practice of SIA" (p. 2).…”

Section: Technocratic Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social impact assessment, social justice and scales of knowledge: exploring the emerging mining industry in Solomon Islands

Ash¹

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This thesis examines power relations in the context of social impact assessment (SIA) as it is applied in the emerging mining industry in Solomon Islands. While the social impacts of large-scale mining in the Global South are well documented, little is known about how and why adverse social impacts continue to occur in the presence of numerous 'best practice' policy and planning tools, including SIA. This raises questions on the efficacy of SIA in identifying, contextualising and mitigating potential social impacts on communities affected by mining activity, particularly on traditional lands inhabited by indigenous peoples.This thesis presents a critical analysis of SIA to provide insight on this disparity in policy and practice, and to enhance sociological understanding on the interplay of globally-driven mining projects, the identification of social impacts, and the role of policy and institutions in cross-cultural contexts. The proposed extraction of nickel in Isabel Province, Solomon Islands, serves as the case study for this analysis. Employing the conceptual frameworks of social justice and political ecology, and drawing on six months' fieldwork in Solomon Islands, qualitative data from individual and group interviews (n=33) and document analysis (n=11) was collected across geopolitical scales -international, national, provincial and local -to compare and analyse perspectives of documents, institutions and people towards SIA and socially just development in the context of potential mining activity. Analysis of these perspectives exposed the extent to which SIA produces, reinforces and/or exacerbates, social injustices.Research findings identified the limits of SIA in: 1) recognising and accounting for indigenous identities and gender roles; 2) the unequal distribution of economic and other resources associated with the development of mining, including the privatisation of land and employment; and 3) representation of project-affected communities through consultation activities associated with SIA, including Free, Prior and Informed Consent. With political ecology as the foundation of this thesis, this thesis argues that these social injustices materialise as a result of a disparity, or mismatch, between knowledge frames across scales.While SIA is bounded to the rhetoric of social justice, consent and participation, this thesis demonstrates that Western expert knowledge and norms are interwoven into the SIA regime, rendering local experiential knowledge marginal. Reflecting this, a multiscale SIA approach is proposed to include consideration of different scales of knowledge systems, iii with outcomes that might assist to mitigate social injustices, such as those identified in this

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2013

Impact Assessment

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Social impact assessment: Politically oriented approaches and applications

Cited by 52 publications

References 1 publication

Sacred land, mineral wealth, and biodiversity at Coronation Hill, Northern Australia: indigenous knowledge and SIA

Sacred land, mineral wealth, and biodiversity at Coronation Hill, Northern Australia: indigenous knowledge and SIA

Social impact assessment, social justice and scales of knowledge: exploring the emerging mining industry in Solomon Islands

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