social impact assessment: politically oriented approaches and applications

ENVIRON IMPACT ASSESS REV 1990;10:37-54 3 7

SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT: POLITICALLY ORIENTED APPROACHES AND APPLICATIONS

DONNA CRAIG

This paper adopts a broad definition of SIA as applied policy analysis and planning activity. The legal requirements for undertaking SIAs in the United States, Aus- tralia, and Canada are discussed. The wide variety of SIA approaches is characterized as predominantly technically oriented or politically oriented. The former approach predominates in Australia and is a useful extension of project-specific EIA. However, politically oriented SIA is necessary as well, particularly when SIA is part of policy making. SIA is an essential part of understanding the process of social change and giving it direction. Politically oriented approaches to SIA are underdeveloped, and this paper explores how they can be further developed and applied in broader contexts (such as community-based studies, regional planning, and in cross-cultural policy). Emphasis is given to how politically oriented SIA can evaluate subjective factors such as cultural and quality of life impacts and have them reflected in relevant decisions.

Introduction

SIA as A p p l i e d Pol icy Analys i s and P lann ing Act iv i ty

Social impact assessment (SIA) can be seen as an interdisciplinary approach to applied policy analysis and planning activity (Carley and Bustelo 1984). The earliest forms of policy science emerged as cost/benefit analysis in the United States in the 1930s. However, it has predominantly developed in its various forms since the 1950s. SIA is commonly identified as having developed out of technology assessment (TA) and environmental impact assessment (EIA).

The author is affiliated with the Law School of Macquarie University, New South Wales, Australia.

© 1990 Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc. 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010 0195-9255/90/$3.50

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The various forms of impact assessment began with the motivation to predict the effects of a proposed development while it was still at the planning stage. Similar issues were addressed by TA, SIA, and EIA, relating to what detrimental and beneficial impacts could be predicted, what alternatives were possible, what mitigative measures were viable, and what policies were preferable (see Rossini and Porter 1983). The central concern was an attempt to give clearer direction to technological change. Some theorists see a wider conflict (unresolved by contemporary policy science) between the continued domination of the scientific, technocratic control of social life and demands for a more democratic, humanistic approach to policy making (see Habermas 1977, Craig 1989, Torgerson 1980).

Definition of SIA No single definition can adequately describe an area of research such as SIA. Freudenburg sees SIA as a hybrid: "an offspring both of science and of the political process," and it can be seen as a "field of social science and a component of the policy-making process" (Freudenberg 1986). The enduring problem re- mains "how best to incorporate scientific input in what will remain largely political issues" (Freudenberg 1986), An SIA involves the identification, analysis, and evaluation of impacts resulting from a particular event (Dietz 1987). A more specific definition is offered by D'Amore (1978):

Social Impact Assessment is an attempt to predict the future effects of policy decisions (including the initiation of specific projects) upon people, their physical and psychological health, well- being and welfare, their traditions, lifestyles, institutions, and interpersonal relationships.

Bowles defines SIA as an "application of social science methodology to assist in social planning" (1981). He goes on to suggest that the study of the impact of externaUy controlled events has a long history, dating from the beginning of social anthropology and sociology. SIA can also be seen as a localized study of social change, and it has much in common with an area of research known as community studies. Bowles sees a local community as "a concrete context in which broad historical trends and forces operating during the epoch are expressed in the institutional patterns which individuals encounter in the course of their everyday lives'. Thus, a localized study of social change must take account of the more general process of social change occurring in society at a particular time. Bowles maintains that SIA can be distinguished from community studies (and other disciplinary and interdisciplinary research in the social sciences) because it is conducted "within a defined decision-making context."

The most useful approach to SIA is to understand it as a broad field of applied policy analysis, which must be flexibly and sensitively applied, depending on the issues involved, the nature of the affected community, and the decision

POLITICALLY ORIENTED SIA 39

process. SIA may be used in the formulation of broad societal policies, such as choices about energy need and technological alternatives available to meet that need. This form of social planning would involve SIA that is educative, relatively long term, and likely to be highly political in character. Other forms of SIA operate in a more limited framework when they are applied to programs and projects.

SIA and the Process of Social Change

The demand for SIA and its development occurred because of concerns about the process of social change. SIA is intended to explicate significant factors and present preferences and aspirations relating to the future. However, the positivist approaches to the policy sciences have tended to dominate TA, EIA and SIA. To a significant extent, these approaches are inadequate as means of analyzing and directing social change. Positivist intellectual traditions accept the imperatives of economic growth and our present industrialized society. Basic environmental values are normally not questioned and reappraised. Environmental problems are rarely seen in a"macro" sense, and the focus is on lower-level procedural issues and the mitigation and management of environmental effects.

Tribe has demonstrated that positivist approaches to policy tend to promote a reduction of the dimensions of complex problems in a way that misstates their underlying structure and ignores the features that give them their total character (1973). Environmental factors are likely to be squeezed out in the process, as they are seen to be "soft" variables that are difficult to quantify in this technocratic approach to policy making (Tribe 1973; 1974).

This approach has met with increasing resistance. The demands for citizen participation in decision making have been vigorously asserted since the 1960s and are a central aspect of SIA. Citizen participation has been greatly manipulated in the context of our political system. However, some forms of participation constitute an attempt to democratize the decision-making process and to change societal values towards the environment (Craig 1989, Bookchin 1982, Boer 1984). The action of participation can be seen as part of the process whereby human values may change (Parry 1972).

Once it is recognized that existing environmental values are inadequate and values are crucial to environmental decision making, SIA needs to focus on value conflicts in our society. An important issue relates to what types of values are likely to enhance environmental quality and address environmental crises as they emerge. Tribe and Boer argue that we must develop ecocentric environmental values to overcome environmental exploitation (Tribe 1974, Boer 1984). This involves an ethical commitment by communities to the intrinsic values of nature, which views humans as part of the natural order, with no natural right to dominate the world. This view of nature can be contrasted with the techno-

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centric approach, which only values the environment because of its utility to human beings (see O'Riordan and Turner 1983). This approach tends to treat the environment as an "object" to be manipulated and a resource to be exploited.

It has been argued that our deep-seated inability to value nature for itself has its origins in the relationships among people (Torgerson 1980, Bookchin 1982). Bookchin asserts that we cannot overcome our desire to dominate and exploit nature, considering that we cannot even overcome our desire to dominate other human beings (Bookchin 1982). Our environmental crisis, being also a social crisis, cannot be addressed merely by "adding on" environmental factors to decision making. SIA needs to address the social and economic values that will determine the outcome and the relationships between humans and the environment.

The Role of SIA in Policy Decisions

The wider objectives of TA, SIA and EIA ought to be twofold: (1) to further develop interdisciplinary, integrated environmental approaches and improve our knowledge about the environment; and (2) to gradually increase the understanding and weight given to environmental information and evolving values in the decision process. SIA is capable of being developed as a form of applied policy analysis that promotes these objectives, as well as providing information about social impacts arising from physical environmental impacts.

I will emphasize forms of SIA that are likely to develop individual and com- munal environmental values and that depart from positivist social science traditions. This involves a study of subjective factors such as quality of life and the development of more culturally sensitive approaches, particularly when SIA involves disadvantaged social groups, minorities, and native people. I will also focus on SIA strategies that are likely to influence and improve decisions.

The next section of the paper will examine preliminary issues about what kinds of legal frameworks implement SIA requirements and enforce them. This will be followed by a discussion of the distinction between political and technical approaches to SIA. Several broad applications of political approaches to SIA will be discussed, to further develop the relationship between SIA and policy planning.

SIA and the Legal Framework

The current field of study known as SIA can trace some of its origins to the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act 1969 (42 USC 4321-4544) (NEPA). The act requires that all federal agencies "utilize a systematic interdisciplinary approach which will insure the integrated use of the natural and social sciences and the environmental design in planning and in decision making which may have an impact on man's environment" (section 102(a)). Further, a

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detailed environmental impact statement (EIS) is required when a proposal for legislation and other major federal actions significantly affect the environment (section 102(c)).

The legal requirement for SIAs was further strengthened by the NEPA regulations, which require that an EIS cover related economic, social, and physical impacts:

Human environment shall be interpreted comprehensively to include the natural and physical environment and the relationship of people with that environment.

The legal requirements for SIAs did not lead to an abundance of such studies. In a review of over eighty EISs in the first decade after NEPA, it was found that fewer then ten percent of studies mentioned primary or secondary social relationships. It was also noted that no social research method or technique could be observed in 86 percent of the EISs reviewed (Freudenburg 1986). It was also clear that most studies focused on economic and technical considerations, even to the exclusion of more truly social factors (Freudenburg 1986).

This lack of compliance with the legal requirement for social impact assessment can be contrasted with the attention given to physical environmental impacts under NEPA. There were 1200 NEPA-related lawsuits filed in the United States in the first nine years (US Council on Environmental Quality 1980). This has forced substantial efforts in documenting physical environmental impacts, the magnitude of the effects, and alternatives to proposals. However, the quality of the evaluative aspects of EISs has been quite poor. One of the reasons for this situation is the lack of EISs that build up an accumulative baseline of knowledge about environmental impacts and issues. This lack has not facilitated the development of legal and administrative standards of adequacy for EISs, beyond the mere provision of information.

Judicial review of NEPA has focused on the information and procedural aspects. Judges have rarely been prepared to review the role of EISs in decision making, beyond a requirement that they should be considered along with other factors. Their approach conforms to the traditions of judicial restraint that are common in areas such as administrative law. Judges are cautious to maintain the appearance of the constitutional "separation of powers"---judicial, legislative, and executive. Therefore, it is possible for old values, antagonistic to environmental protection, to persist in decision making (so long as the procedures of NEPA are complied with). Legal enforcement of EIA and SIA has not guaranteed an improvement in the research data base, or the evolution of improved environmental values in decision making. This enforcement can be a significant factor, but other social and political changes are also required.

There have been very few EISs challenged under NEPA on the basis of an inadequate SIA component. A recent case did turn on this issue. Northern Cheyenne v. Hodel No CV 82-116-BLG (D Mont May 28, 1985, unreported)

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involved the largest Federal coal lease sale that had ever been made. The US Department of Interior prepared an EIS on the affected area (the Northern Powder river basin of Wyoming and Montana) with virtually no reference to the likely social, cultural, or economic effects on the native people living in the area. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe sued to have the EIS overturned and was successful. The Court criticized the Department of Interior for failure to turn its "ostensible concern" with socioeconomic impacts into "any meaningful analysis of the extent of such impacts on certain groups within the affected area, particularly the Northern Cheyenne Tribe" (Freudenburg 1986).

Most Western industrialized countries have adopted a form of EIS. Not all of EIA processes are required by legislation, nor do they incorporate both social and environmental impact assessment. (For a discussion of whether EIA ought to be contained in legislation or implemented as nonlegislative policy, see Fowler 1986). The Environmental Assessment Act 1975, in Ontario, Canada, legally requires EIAs on all public projects (unless exempted) and incorporates SIA as part of the study. In Australia, the definition of "environment" under the Com- monwealth Environmental Protection (Impact of Proposals) Act 1974 is broad enough to require SIA. However, it is doubtful whether the requirement is judicially enforceable due to the unusual drafting of the legislation and administrative procedures.

New South Wales, Australia, adopts a similarly broad definition of the "environment" in the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. Addition- ally, regulations 34 and 57, made under that act, prescribe that EISs should incorporate social and economic effects. The regulations, specifying contents of EISs, are judicially enforceable. However, strict compliance is not required. Rather, a standard of "reasonable" compliance (sufficient to comprehensively identify and discuss environmental impacts and alert decision makers and mem- bers of the public as to their consequences for the community) is adopted (see Prineas vs. Forestry Commission, 49 LGRA 402. New South Wales courts have taken significant steps towards legally enforcing EIA, but is unclear as to what extent they will require social impacts to be addressed.

There have been some Australian studies, undertaken independently of EIA and strict legal requirements, that have gone much further in looking at social impacts. The Ranger Uranium Inquiry, conducted under the Commonwealth Environmental Protection (Impact of Proposals)Act 1974 (Fox 1977), developed into a broad-ranging investigation of the dangers associated with uranium mining and milling, nuclear reactors, nuclear wastes, and nuclear weapons. This investigation inevitably involved addressing social impacts at national and inter- national levels. However, the inquiry was seriously deficient in its examination of the social impacts on the Aboriginal people affected by the proposal.

This deficiency was recognized by the Commonwealth government, which funded a social impact monitoring study in the region (Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1984). A further attempt has been made to develop an


approach to Aboriginal SIA in the East Kimberley Impact Assessment Project undertaken in Western Australia (1986-1989). A community SIA was undertaken at Turkey Creek and formed part of the regional environmental study. This development will be discussed below in the section dealing with politically oriented SIA and indigenous people.

Conceptual Orientation of SIA

Technical and Political Models of SIA

Decision making generally can be characterized as either predominantly technical or predominantly political. A similar characterization can be applied to SIA. Neither approach is value free, and they reflect either technocentric or ecocentric values about the environment.

Another way of looking at approaches to S IA is proposed by D'Amore (1981). He identifies three evolving models of SIA:

• an adversary model, in which each key actor--the proponent, the government, or the community--does his own SIA. This model can conceivably lead to a form of arbitration process or develop further in a quasijudicial manner. This model tends to recognize conflict as legitimate, rather than something to be avoided, and as an integral component of planning.

• a straightforward research model, where the impact assessment meets the guidelines established by one or more governmental agencies.

• a collaborative model, where communications are established from the start of the SIA among all key actors; agreement is reached regarding terms of reference, the manner in which the study will be conducted, and by whom. This model presupposes that such communication is possible and desirable.

A review of conceptual approaches reveals some confusion about SIA. We need to choose the most appropriate conceptual approach to SIA (or a combination of approaches), as this choice will have a significant influence on the development of SIA methodologies. I suggest that the clearest dichotomy is between the technical and political approaches to SIA.

Table 1 provides a summary of the key characteristics of these types of SIA. The two approaches to SIA show conflicting views about scientific knowledge, the roles of experts and the public, and the process (and desirability) of social change. Thus, the political and technical approaches to SIA cannot be easily reconciled. It is clear that many decisions are based on little or no information about social impacts and that we need to greatly expand our knowledge about them, but there are difficulties with how far technical SIAs can expand to this type of knowledge.

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TABLE 1. Comparison of Technical and Political Approaches to SIA

Technical Approach Political Approach

Emphasis is placed on the product rather than Emphasis is placed on community the process of SIA. development and the decision-making

It is influenced by the positive approach to social theory and theory of democracy.

The decision-making process is portrayed as being objective.

Scientific evidence is seen as being objective and determinative.

Experts have a predominant role in decision making, and citizens are seen as "consumers" who are incapable of expressing ethical or practical concerns about the environment.

It adopts the rationale of the industrial market society, with an emphasis on maximizing the quantity of commodities and efficiency in the production process.

There is a faith in technology as a means of curing environmental problems.

Issues in the decision-making process are primarily identified as project specific (low level) and often relate to design and mitigation of environmental effects.

The primary focus is on SIA methods rather than the "ends" or broader social policy issues.

process rather than product. It is influenced by critical social theories and

the developmental theories of democracy. The decision-making process is portrayed as

being value laden and political in character. Experts and scientific evidence are perceived to

have some importance, but the ultimate determinant of policy is seen as value choice.

It adopts a critical view of industrial market society with its growth imperatives and focuses on alternative economic and social strategies that may evolve less exploitative values towards the environment.

There is an emphasis on socially useful and socially directed technology.

Issues in the decision-making process tend to be identified as higher-level planning issues such as project need and alternatives as well as broad social strategies.

Conflict over social values is perceived as the reality in environmental controversies, and demands are made for them to be debated and determined in a democratic manner.

Attention is given to the historical and cultural context of the SIA.

Part o f the p rob lem lies in the tendency to characterize complex envi ronmenta l

issues as being pr imari ly technical . In reali ty, there are technical and poli t ical

aspects to many envi ronmenta l decisions. Exis t ing approaches to S IA and E I A

have failed to facil i tate the identif ication o f these different e lements . The dis-

t inction is important because technical and poli t ical decis ions involve distinct dec i s ion-making tasks. For example , informat ion about societal va lue cho ice

and broad ci t izen part icipation may be appropriate for a predominant ly poli t ical

decis ion, and a greater role for expert ise and adjudicat ion (with less ci t izen

part icipation) may be appropriate for a predominant ly technical decis ion.

It wil l only be possible to uti l ize both approaches to S IA i f we are able to

appreciate their l imitat ions and potential i t ies, and identify the different types o f

issues that arise in making environmenta l decisions. Thus Berger found it ap-

propriate to use a technical approach to test exper t ev idence on the Mackenz ie

Val ley pipel ine proposal (in Canada) , as this aspect o f the proposal could be


subjected to formal adjudication. However, the political approach was adopted to determine attitudes towards the pipeline and the values of native people towards their land (Berger 1977).

The political approach to SIA is underdeveloped and should be experimented with further. The following sections of the paper will discuss how political approaches can be applied in broader legal policy and planning frameworks.

Political Approach Methodologies

There is a fairly extensive literature on methodologies appropriate for the technical approach to SIA. Less attention has been given to methodologies appropriate to the political approach to SIA, and they raise serious difficulties. This section will examine some of the suggestions and practices that seem to be consistent with the political approach. It will also discuss how a closer connection can be made between SIA and the policy and planning process.

At a general level, SIA is not seen as being neutral, and the way it is undertaken will have beneficial or negative effects on the community. Practitioners using this approach are likely to identify the impacted community in a broader geo- graphical and political sense. Melser considers that the political approach to SIA is more likely to examine development as a social and political process, looking at the impact of developments on community social structure or on the power of different social groups, and at the more personal and intangible impacts of developments (Melser 1983). Intangibles include the impact of development on attachment to the community, on a sense of belonging and of personal identity, as well as on social attitudes.

Broader Application of Political Approaches to SIA

Applying SIA to Legislation

Boer (1989) has undertaken a review of the legal framework affecting Aborigines in the East Kimberley region as part of the East Kimberley Impact Assessment Project. Boer has explicitly considered the importance of the legal framework for past, present, and future social relationships in the region, particularly in relation to the cultural aspects. The law is also considered as part of the Aboriginal strategies and aspirations for change in the region.

The most substantial work undertaken as a social impact assessment of legislation is the Berger report on the effect of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act 1971 on the native people of Alaska (Village Journey, Berger 1985). This act was meant to resolve aboriginal land claims in Alaska and incorporate Alaskan native people into dominant North American institutions (Berger 1985). Alaskan natives were to receive 44 million acres of land and $962.5 million dollars in

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compensation. In exchange, the Aboriginal title to land elsewhere was extin- guished. Title to the portion of Alaskan land settled on the native people was vested in twelve regional and more than 200 village corporations. Villagers had shares in both forms of corporation. However, the corporations were set up on the American commercial model, and had little relevance to native institutions and strategies of selfdetermination.

These corporations were meant to spontaneously seek out economic oppor- amities (rather than originating around them) and become profitable. They were complex and expensive to run, because they had to conform with United States company law. Many jobs in the regional and local corporations went to non- natives because of the nature of the tasks and skills required. This was a long way from the subsistence lifestyle, preferred by many native Alaskans, which suited the harsh tundra of that nation. Most importantly, this traditional lifestyle was not dependent on the continual environmental exploitation of resources like forests and minerals, which the corporations tended to promote. Many of the corporations have not been economically viable, and native shareholders will lose their land, when tax exemptions are lifted, in a few years. This is a good study of the social impacts that can be imposed by a legislative settlement. It would be preferable to have such a study prior to the legislation being enacted.

Community and Regional SIA

Bowles developed a useful approach to SIA by integrating it with community development (1981). SIA is seen by him as a process that explicates the inner workings of communities and revitalizes the public life of communities. He focuses on key indicators of community life--"social vitality and viability of the local economy" (Bowles 1981). This approach was further developed by Blishen et al. in their "SocioEconomic Impact Model for Northern Develop- ment" (1979) (Blishen-Lockhart Model).

The Blishen-Lockhart model (1979) focused on three factors:

(i) Economic conditions, to examine the notion that economic behavior could be analyzed in terms of its relation to the community's degree of depen- dence on, or independence of, the existing regional, provincial, or national economy. This is called community economic viability.

(ii) Community patterns of social behavior, to ascertain the extent to which they could be described as "privatized" or "communitarian." This is called community social vitality.

(iii) The extent to which the community's economic viability and social vitality are associated with the mobilization of political power or process. This is called political efficacy.


This model attempts to give a more holistic view of the community and the interactions that constitute it. It particularly considers the relationship between objective and subjective indicators of community life.

SIA as P r o j e c t Assessment and P a r t of the Planning Framework

Project Appraisal EIA emphasizes the study of the physical impacts of specific projects. Many people consider SIA to be simply a dimension of EIA, because of its emphasis on project assessment. This is a reasonable approach, so long as SIA is developed with that focus and the broader planning framework is adequately developed. However, many participants in SIA have wanted more from the process. For example, the environmental assessment of the Beaufort Sea development proposal in Canada occurred in the absence of any coherent regional planning. In a sense, the assessment panel had to try to develop the planning framework as it went along. This problem was encountered in Australia in the Ranger Uranium Inquiry. The Australian government policies relating to uranium mining and marketing were poorly developed at that time, and regional planning was nonexistent.

SIA can only operate effectively as project assessment if it can take account of the broader policy-making context. It may be appropriate for a form of SIA to operate in the broader policy context. For example, a major public inquiry into uranium mining or resource allocation (such as electric power) could include a political model of SIA. Citizen involvement in SIA at the project level can be a cynical exercise if the crucial decisions have already been made about the need for the project, choice of technology, project design, and site. Policy issues are likely to be more dominant in the broader planning framework, and technical issues will become more crucial at the project level. However, the policy and technical aspects of planning can never be completely separated, as demonstrated by the debate over nuclear power.

SIA may also have a role in the preparation of comprehensive land-use and other plans (at the national, regional, and local levels). SIA can be used to highlight value choices, increase public involvement and efficacy, and give more democratic direction to the process. Social planning is an existing and ongoing aspect of environmental planning. Arguably, some lessons can be drawn from SIA and attempts made to develop a more active democratic tradition in social planning. In many ways, there is nothing new about SIA--it focuses on concerns that have preoccupied social scientists for a long time. SIA's significance lies in its action focus and the attempt to give more concrete and democratic meaning to social planning.

Regional Planning An area that needs particular attention is the role of SIA in regional planning. This aspect needs urgent development to give policy direction to lower levels

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in the planning process and project assessment. The need for regional environmental impact inquires has been recognized by the Australian government. It has recently established the Resources Assessment Commission to hold inquiries into resource allocation conflicts and decisions. The inquiries can be conducted on a regional sectoral or industry basis. Robert Fowler has suggested that regional environmental impact systems could be developed to include the following:

• procedures for the identification of the region's strategic importance;

• the conduct of regional environmental studies to provide baseline information concerning strategic regions;

• procedures for the preparation and adoption of regional plans that would detail, inter alia, preferred land uses and ambient environmental standards for each region;

• the implementation of regional plans through regulatory and economic mech- anisms at project-specific level (Fowler 1983).

Environmental Inquiries

Several types of environmental inquiry should be explored to further develop policy and planning frameworks:

• ISSUE-ORIENTED INQUIRIES These may be directed to developing an information base and formulating policy in relation to issues such as sand mining, coal mining, or urban freeways. We have some experience with these inquiries, but they could be utilized as a longer-term approach to policy making.

• REGIONAL INQUIRIES S o m e areas of Australia such as the Hunter Valley (New South Wales) and the Latrobe Valley (Victoria) suffer such acute development pressure that comprehensive regional policies must be developed. (A start has been made with the Hunter Region Regional Environ- mental plan 1982 and the Latrobe Valley Regional Commission).

• CLASS EIAS It is sometimes possible to consider a number of EIAs together, when they relate to the same type of project or relate to the the same area.

It should be stressed that these approaches can succeed only if new inquiry procedures are developed along the lines of those discussed in relation to the political model of SIA. The problem of cost will inevitably be raised. However, lack of coordination, and delays in our system, are already costly. The proposed approach should enable many conflicts to be fought out in advance of particular


projects. People inevitably react more strongly to an individual project, and participation cannot be excluded later in the process. However, the issues in the debate will be clearer, as the relevant policy will be spelt out in considerable detail. Ad hoc EIAs and SIAs are expensive, and often duplicate existing research rather than adding to our knowledge. All three types of inquiry listed above could be developed to provide clearer guidelines for EIAs and SIAs and to provide cumulative impact assessment.

Politically Oriented SIA and Indigenous People Berger has drawn public attention to the need to develop forms of SIA that meet the needs of indigenous people (1977, 1986). Geisler points out how technical forms of SIA fail to reflect the cultural and socihl concerns of native people (1982). This failure can be oppressive when large-scale projects are undertaken on their land or affect their lifestyles (for example, depletion of fisheries, scarcity of game for hunting, pollution of environment). Indigenous peoples are increas- ingly demanding a stake (compensation, royalties) if development does go ahead. More significantly, they wish to have an influential input into the planning and policy decisions affecting them. The concerns of indigenous people to assert sovereignty and a high degree of self-determination can be devastated by a large- scale project being imposed upon them.

It is difficult for indigenous voices to be heard when there is a cultural gap between them and decision makers. Some forms of SIAs have used anthropol- ogical approaches and tribal institutions to document indigenous attitudes, perceptions, and aspirations, and to communicate them to decision makers. I have discussed the role of indigenous people in SIA in Australia, Canada and the United States in a recent publication (Craig 1989). This type of SIA provides some good illustrations of politically oriented approaches. Two examples are the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry and the East Kimberley Impact Assess- ment Project.

Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry A good example of the political approach to SIA is the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, conducted by (then) Mr. Justice Thomas Berger in the Canadian Arctic (1977). Berger was appointed to review the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the biggest project ever undertaken by private enterprise. The proposed natural gas pipeline through the Mackenzie Valley to the United States was to cross a huge region, mainly occupied by native people.

Berger made his departure from the technical approach to SIA clear in the introduction of his report on the proposal:

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The impact of the industrial system upon the native people has been the special concern of the inquiry, one thing is certain: the impact of a pipeline will bear especially upon the native people. That is why 1 have been concerned that the native people should have an opportunity to speak to the inquiry in their own villages, in their own language, and in their own way (Berger 1977).

Berger made explicit several assumptions, which influenced the study approach, about the likelihood of industrialization in Western Arctic and about Canadian policy towards native people.

Berger ensured that all parties had access to all studies and reports relevant to the inquiry. Funds were provided for an umbrella group of intervenors---the Northern Assessment Gronlr----to enable them to carry out their own research and hire staff. Preliminary hearings were conducted during which "all those who were affected by the project---ore even remotely suspected that they might be-- were given an opportunity to explain their concerns, and to make suggestions, regarding the procedure for hearings and what areas the inquiry should consider" (Berger, in Clark 1982).

Two main types of hearing were organized. Formal hearings were held to hear expert evidence about the proposal. All participants were represented and the experts were challenged and cross-examined. At the same time, community

• )

hearings were held in each city and town, settlement and village in the Mackenzie Valley, the Mackenzie Delta, and the Northern Yukon. At these hearings people were given the opportunity to speak in their own language about their attitude towards the pipeline. Formal cross-examination was not allow during the community hearings, but the pipeline companies were allowed to make submissions to the inquiry when they thought people were misinformed or they wished to correct a mistaken view of the proposal.

Justice Berger found that technical and political issues could not be neatly separated, and that ordinary people could contribute to the resolution of both types of issue• The community hearings contributed to even the most technical subjects such as the biological vulnerability of the Beaufort Sea, seabed ice scour, and oil spills (Berger, in Clark 1982). Equally important, community hearings gave a unique perspective on the true nature of native claims:

No academic treatise or discussion or formal presentation of the claims of native people by native organizations and their leaders, could offer as compelling and vivid a picture of the goals and aspirations of native people as their own testimony. In no other way could we have discovered the depth of feeling regarding past wrongs and future hopes, and the determination of the native people to assert their collective identity, today and in years to come (Berger, in Clark 1982).

It is not possible to apply the Berger approach uncritically to new issues and groups of people (particularly in other countries). The key to the success of this approach is the sensitivity and flexibility with which it is applied and the trust and cooperation (control) by the indigenous community involved.


The East Kimberley Impact Assessment Project---Community SIA

The East Kimberley Impact Assessment Project (EKIAP) was an interdisciplinary project involving applied research done on behalf of the Aboriginal people in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia (for project description see final report of EKIAP, Coombs et al. 1989, App. A). A specific community SIA was undertaken with Turkey Creek Aboriginal communities as part of EKIAP. The project initiators (Ross, Craig, and Boer) were concerned about the lack of development of forms of SIA suitable for Aboriginal people in Australia. They believed that contemporary Aboriginal perceptions and their cultural context were a vital dimension of EKIAP research. The most promising conceptual orientation for such research was demonstrated by the political approaches to SIA.

It was decided that a community SIA was feasible (in terms of resources) and allowed a wide range of issues and cumulative environmental impacts to be considered. The cultural and historical context for these issues could really be explained only by the community in their own ways. Therefore, Turkey Creek and its outstation communities were offered the study and the opportunity to decide topics and methods. The communities seized upon the idea of telling stories.

The research was undertaken by Ross during 1987 and 1988. The terms of reference for the study emerged through a process of community initiative and response to ideas put forward by Ross:

• that the peoples' stories be recorded and compiled into a community social history showing how Aboriginal people have experienced major changes since white settlement of the area;

• that people's aspirations be presented as part of this continuing history;

• that the aims be to "help kartiya understand," particularly those non-Abo- rigines in a position to assist or prevent the achievement of community aspirations, and to record the stories for the benefit of children and grand- children;

• that story-recording be the principal method of research (Ross 1989:15)

The Community SIA is described in an EKIAP Working Paper by Ross (1989). My working paper discusses it in relation to SIA theory and practice in Australia and overseas (Craig 1989). Story telling developed as an approach that gives Aboriginal people considerable control and power over research. Aboriginal perceptions and aspirations are presented on the context of their own history. Turkey Creek communities have survived massacres and major structural changes in the East Kimberley region. Their stories reveal sadness but also strategies for cultural survival and hope that they can make "Katiya" (white man) understand. The community S1A gives a vivid and textured insight into Aboriginal percep-

52 DONNA CRAIG

tions, which second-hand accounts fail to do. For example, George Mung ex- presses his relationship to his country in the following way:

If they smash this turtle (a turtle dreaming site, represented by a rock near Tickalara), we will have nowhere to live (belong). If we find it smashed, we don't know what we'll do. This is the special one. That's his country (hills to the east), Mungarrtapany. Those two small hills over there, there's a cave there. That's his (the turtle's) country, he's looking out (George Mnng, translated by Eileen Bray--Ross 1989).

This type of SIA presents an integrated view of the world, which makes prediction more difficult than usual. Impacts and events cannot be easily singled out of the cumulative picture---that would destroy its essential character. Ross presented the past, present, and future as being linked in Aboriginal perception. In part, she dealt with the problem of prediction by relying on Aboriginal aspirations and strategies as elaborated in the SIA. Turkey Creek people may not be able to translate this into reality in the near future, but developing political efficacy and defining goals through this t.ype of SIA may be a step along the way.

All research needs a matrix of interpretation that is subjective as well as technical. The Turkey Creek SIA was an important step in providing this dimension to EKIAP and establishing the legitimacy of subjective research. In an ethical and practical sense, there is futility in policies made in ignorance of the culture and workings of a community. Most significantly, the SIA demonstrated the importance and vitality of contemporary Aboriginal culture, which continues to link the physical and human environment in an inseparable way.

Conclusion

Many of the problems associated with positivist approaches to social science have been perpetuated in areas of applied policy analysis such as TA, EIA and SIA. This paper characterizes these approaches as being applied in technically oriented SIA and distinguishes it from politically oriented SIA. SIA has a role in broad planning and policy issues, as well as project appraisal (where it is an extension of EIA). The political approaches to SIA are underdeveloped. The major focus of these approaches is on citizen participation, value conflicts, and community development. Politically oriented SIA can be seen as a variety of approaches and strategies to revitalize social planning and give more democratic direction to social change.

This paper reviews the legal requirements for SIA and discusses the social impacts of legislative frameworks. Broader applications of politically oriented SIA in areas such as community and regional studies and planning are discussed to demonstrate how it can improve policy development. Considerable improvement of the policy framework is necessary if project-specific SIA is to work effectively. Examples of political approaches to SIA involving indigenous people


illustrate the importance of participation and control by communities affected by proposals. The examples also demonstrate the importance of the subjective dimension of environmental research, as well as the need to appreciate cultural and community context before decisions are made.

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C a s e s

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Prineas v. Forestry Commission. 49 LGRA 402.

social impact assessment: politically oriented approaches and applications

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