Social impact assessment and management methodology using social indicators and planning strategies
The scope of environmental impact statements prepared during the past few years has steadily expanded to incorporate all aspects of the social as well as the natural environment, including demographic, economic, social, political, and cultural conditions. Broadly conceived, social impacts are alterations in people's living conditions that occur in conjunction with a new policy, program, or project, and that (1) are in addition to all other concurrent changes produced by other factors, and (2) are seen by those affected as significant social events. Since any social environment is constantly changing, the crucial problems in analyzing social impacts are to identify those social alterations that are a direct or indirect result of the specific action under examination, apart from all other events and changes, and to determine which of these alterations are having significant social effects on the people involved. Three features of this conception of social impacts are especially noteworthy. First, although impacts are often thought of as undesirable or detrimental in nature, they may also be desirable or beneficial. Second, although impacts are often described as caused by prior intervening innovations, in reality they always interact with their original causes in a reciprocal process, either immediately or after some time lag. Third, the purpose of social impact assessment is to enable policy makers to anticipate and plan for potential impacts before they occur, and then act to prevent or mitigate undesired impacts. A new methodology for performing social impact assessment and management studies that meet current needs by emphasizing standardized social indicators and social planning techniques is proposed. We refer to our approach as the Social Impact and Planning (SIP) method of social impact assessment. (ERB)
- Research Organization:
- Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs., Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- EY-76-C-06-1830
- OSTI ID:
- 6505425
- Report Number(s):
- PNL-RAP-18; TRN: 79-003268
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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