Social Impact Assessment: Themes, Indigenous Considerations

This essay provides an overview of social impact assessment (SIA), highlighting its importance in evaluating the social effects of development interventions. It explores key themes within the context of the author's field of practice, emphasizing unique considerations for indigenous people and the challenges arising from power imbalances between developers and communities. The essay discusses the political aspects intertwined with SIA, the difficulties in engaging multicultural communities, and the professional value system held by practitioners. It also addresses the need for SIA to be an ongoing process, adapting to changing value systems and community structures. The essay concludes by acknowledging the conflicting values between developers and communities and the importance of commitment to the SIA process to ensure equitable development outcomes, encouraging access to power systems beyond individual projects.

Running Head: SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Social Impact Assessment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The social impact assessment is a type of mythology used for reviewing the social
effects of the development interventions such as infrastructure projects. Social impact
assessment is applied to the planned interventions usually and at the same time the technique
can be used for evaluating to impact of the unplanned events as demographic change,
disasters and the epidemics. The SIA depends on the perspectives upto some extents. Taken
for example, for a particular developer, it might appear to be initiating a hurdle difficult to
overcome and on the other hand, for another developer, it might appear to be a golden
opportunity for community engagement and establish trust among all resulting in a better
outcome (Arce-Gomez, Donovan and Bedggood 2015). For a community member, the social
impact assessment might provide an opportunity to influence the outcomes of the project and
make one’s voice audible. This is advantageous for the community or personal interests as it
looks after their benefits and development. On the other hand, it might prove to be useless
due to the politicization of process, limited understanding of the community, the logistical
and financial constraints, the policy implications and many others. The goal of social impact
assessment is to deliver an ecologically, economically and socio-culturally equitable
environment. Hence, the social impact assessment helps in promoting the development of
community and it has to be used properly to address the intended outcome. This essay will
explore the key themes which are identified in the particular context of my specific field of
practice.
The indigenous people are considered to be the unique considerations within the
social impact assessment framework. Usually, the development projects take place in those
territories which are occupied for the traditional lifestyles of the aboriginal people. Since the
development projects are likely to have significant impact on the daily lives, the impact
assessments should consider these impacts seriously (O'Faircheallaigh 2009). It has been
found that one such challenge is to fulfil the gap created by the imbalance of power between

3SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
different developers and different communities too. The social impact assessment is
intertwined with the political aspects and various policy processes. Since, in the indigenous
communities the access to power becomes difficult, the decision-making structures in the
entire process subsequently stay less prominent. It has been found in the context of Sydney
that there is an abundance of multi-cultural people. It makes Sydney lacking a unified
community working together on a specific issue regarding the community (Craig 1990). It
becomes more challenging to unite all the members and make them participate
comprehending each other linguistically. The biggest challenge is that subjects cannot be
engaged which is necessary in an understandable cultural context.
The objective of social impact assessment is to make sure that the development has
maximized the benefits and minimized the costs mainly when the costs are initiated by the
people. Another feature of social impact assessment is that it is a professional value system
which is held by the practitioners. It has been found from the previous literature that social
SIA works best as an ongoing process and not as a finite one. Notably, the impacts of the
project becomes difficult to predict beforehand because there are certain factors such as the
value systems , type of development and community structure might change over the period
of time. Therefore, in order to meet its purpose, SIA has to work as a process of adaptive
management of the policies, plans and projects, programs and inform the planned
intervention operations. The barriers to the ongoing process might be the consultation
disturbances in the community, the budget issues and engagement of people and many others
(Esteves, Franks and Vanclay 2012). I have found from my personal experience that fatigue
might initiate when there is a perceived disconnection between the outcomes and the inputs.
It is quite unlikely and difficult to make all the stakeholders value the process. The goal of
social impact assessment becomes easily achievable when the communities and the
government are supportive towards the SIA aims and purposes.

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When SIA is elaborated more, it can be seen that this process is a result of continuous
conflict between the developers, the community members and the community as a whole.
On one hand developers want more profit above all and on the other hand, the values of the
communities might also differ from one to another. It is evident that the aim of the SIA
community is to focus on development and better development outcomes after identifying the
negative of the unintended outcomes. Another aim of it is to assist the communities and other
stakeholders for identifying the goals of development and ensure that the positive outcomes
are enhanced. The priority is always the betterment of the lives of disadvantaged. The
modern approach of SIA is to present an opportunity for everyone to have a share in the
social outcomes and the economic development of a project. It is also said that the social
issues can become the primary drivers of the business risk and the betterment of the
community can also become the betterment of the business as a whole (Howitt 1993).
Therefore, the biggest challenge initiates due to the conflicting values, the commitment to the
community which can prove to be the ultimate solution. In this unit, I have undergone an
exploration of different social impact assessment case studies and how can the best practices
of SIA be used.
On a concluding note, SIA can be referred to as a good practice through which social
impact assessment accepts that economic, social and biophysical impacts and intertwined
with each others. The SIA should develop a strong understanding of the impact pathways
which are created during the change in other domains (Barrow 2000). I would like to
comment that the community demographics are constantly changing posing challenges to the
business in the local council. The only solution is to keep commitment to the SIA as a process
ensuring access to all the power systems extending the scope which is beyond the individual
projects. According to me the extension should be towards an all encompassing development
which can meet the hopes of all concerned people.

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References
Arce-Gomez, A., Donovan, J.D. and Bedggood, R.E., 2015. Social impact assessments:
Developing a consolidated conceptual framework. Environmental Impact Assessment
Review, 50, pp.85-94.
Barrow, C.J., 2000. Social impact assessment: an introduction. Oxford University Press.
Craig, D., 1990. Social impact assessment: Politically oriented approaches and
applications. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 10(1-2), pp.37-54.
Esteves, A.M., Franks, D. and Vanclay, F., 2012. Social impact assessment: the state of the
art. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 30(1), pp.34-42.
Howitt, R., 1993. Social impact assessment as ‘applied peoples' geography’. Australian
Geographical Studies, 31(2), pp.127-140.
O'Faircheallaigh, C., 2009. Effectiveness in social impact assessment: Aboriginal peoples and
resource development in Australia. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 27(2), pp.95-
110.