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INTRODUCTION
Social Impact Assessments (
SIA's
) are a
management tool. They provide
the investor/ developer/ planner with socio-cultural data about a
particular area or community that is going to be affected by their
development plans, and they can predict the likely impact of the
development upon the area or community. Increasingly in today's world there is a
demand from the consumer for an ethical and socially responsible form of development.
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Perhaps, more
importantly, organizations like the World Bank, the EU and national governments are
placing more emphasis on sustainable development. Consequently,
the developers must be seen to be addressing these central issues in their strategies.
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Social Impact Assessments are carried out prior to a project being
built or expanded.
Many
investors, planners and developers do not want the local communities to know about the
plans for development until the project has actually been built, to reduce the likely
impact of public objections and/or steep increases in land values, surrounding the
proposed project site.
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QUALITATIVE AND
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH – ANTHROPOLOGY |
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As part of a
Social Impact Assessment, we determine whether a particular change will fit into the
culture of the affected people and what the likely impact of this change is going to be |
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As anthropologists we
adopt a methodology based around qualitative and ethnographic
research.
This includes: participant observation and observation – living in
and/or observing a community in precise detail,
learning to understand
the community; |
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oral and life histories – this involves studying the
change, development and continuity in community life cycles; ethnographic
mapping – this technique involves identifying important features of
the landscape in which the community live. |
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Anthropologists
provide us with the
"
whys
"
&
"
how's
"
and the reasons behind people’s opinions, but not with the
"
how many's
". |
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