Pantalla “RESULTADO”

Many past studies of social impact linked the application of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) to specific issues with their own context. Few addressed the application of SIA at different background settings and with a wider context (Burdge, 1990; Vanclay, 2003a). The lack of SIA studies in a wider context leads to questions about the appropriateness of applying current SIA implications (Burdge, 1990; Hindmarsh, 1990; Momtaz, 2005). Moreover, each SIA study is subject to a specific-situation that requires specific attention (Slootweg et al., 2001). In this study, I have focused on the methodological design for SIA in order to identify a methodology best-suited to conducting SIA in different background settings and in wider contexts. For that purpose, a theoretical framework was proposed.

The theoretical framework uses ANT-K Theory, which is modified from ANT Theory and other theories of social change, to describe and explain the assessment-making process for predicting social impact. These theories in conjunction, provide an analytical pathway for an SIA framework. Each type of data proposed by the ANT-K Theory brings information that explains certain aspects of the process of social change that links to development. This helps assessors identify the necessary data to collect for investigating social impact issues. With a clearer idea of the types of data needed for assessing the impact of development, the burden of creating extra data or useless data for that particular study (Burdge & Opryszek, 1984) is more likely to be avoided.

The step-by-step analytical pathway required by the framework suggests:

 The place/ site to begin an SIA study;

 The direction to look for the data; the kinds of data needed;

 The sources of this data; and

 The way to link this data to the development in question.

The selection of data, including local biophysical features and the consequences of

development activities, provides the space to review any possible conflicts arising between background settings and a developing environment. Past studies show that a clear mapping of the needs of local conditions in facing the issue of development can provide a good

knowledge of conflict (Peltonen & Sairinen, 2010). The knowledge of conflict enables assessors to identify the best way to modify potential changes to meet local needs and to meet the purposes of the development. This is in line with suggestions made by some authors, such as Glasson and Cozens (2011), about the importance of considering locality issues when in the process of assessing development.

The case study showed possible ways to become aware of local priorities and how to find hidden information about local values, and incorporating these values into the assessment process for identifying social impacts. For example, outsiders may not be aware that, in general, the Chinese community of the case study area has a stronger financial background compared to the Malay or Iban communities. This difference affects their expectations towards future developments taking place in Beliong. Unlike the Malay or Iban families, most Chinese families own second homes in the city and many of their children attend primary or secondary schools there. Therefore, many young generation Chinese are already used to the city lifestyle and they have less experience of living in the rural environment. Their backgrounds make them less attached to life in Beliong, when compared to Malay or Iban young people who do not have such experiences and who have stronger attachments towards life in Beliong as their only home.

An understanding of local values is a way to see the development from a local perspective (D. R. Becker et al., 2003; Odell, Scoble, & Recharte Bullard, 2011). The starting point

suggested for an SIA study is the core of social change, which from an ANT-K perspective, are actors in the context of individuals, social institutions, and biophysical features. These actors come from the area where the development is proposed. The source of information for identifying an actor is provided by the affected people and other key informants who have

varying, sometimes conflicting, interests in the development. The information gained in tracing the way actors transform their capability into actions that contribute to social change is gathered via interviewing local people and observing local conditions.

All of these data sources create opportunities for affected people and related stakeholders to contribute to the process of decision-making in regard to the development, as has been

recommended by many scholars (Ahmadvand et al., 2009; Dasgupta & Beard, 2007; Duncan, 2007; Okediji, 2011; Rajaram & Das, 2006; Stevenson, 1996). As a consequence, the

findings of such SIA studies manage to communicate the needs of the affected people as well as the hopes of the decision-makers involved (Chamala, 1990). The framework proposed here is in line with other research concerning an appropriate research environment that emphasises local input in investigating social impacts and helps in developing an SIA method that is best- suited to local conditions (Gondolf & Wells, 1986; West, 1986).

In addition, the data sources, and starting points suggested by the framework, are designed to use local knowledge in identifying specific criteria that best represent local conditions of the area in which a development is to take place. The framework leads an assessor to closely trace the social transformation process by using relationships between actors and their capital stocks to produce actions that contribute to social change in a particular specific location. By doing so, SIA has a better chance of identifying the specific needs of each development, which is normally one of the obstacles assessors face in assessing developments (Dreyer et al., 2010; Riethmuller, 2003). However, the framework suggests a tracing track to identify the local needs via the recognition of their connections to opportunities or limitations of capital stocks due to the development. This is to avoid some of the local needs, that do not have direct connections to the development, from being overlooked in the process.

In general, the framework creates a way to help assessors look for hidden data or indirect data by providing directional criteria. For example, in collecting data related to social rules

assessors are led to look for information about relevant norms and cultures that affect the beliefs and mind-sets of the affected people and their communities. This effort provides assessors with leads as to possible connections between the information collected and the thinking of the local people towards their daily lives, priorities and opportunities. As

mentioned earlier in this section, the majority of Malay and Iban communities have a weaker financial background compared to the Chinese community in the case study area. Because of this weaker financial condition, they are less able to go to the city regularly or to live there. The Malay and Iban people thus have fewer opportunities and experiences of city life.

The examples in my case study showed that a poorer financial background might be one of the reasons that causes the Malay and Iban people to have fewer connections with buyers from the city or other places. As a result, they have fewer contacts with potential buyers from outside and, as such, they have access to only a smaller market for their farming products which they sell through middlemen, who call personally to buy from them. These farmers hope to see changes that could help them to overcome their existing difficulties in looking for new markets. The proposed improvement of the road and bridge access will create an

opportunity for them to access new markets in the city or further afield. In addition, Beliong is the only home for most of the Malay and Iban families. They also hope for changes that will improve the standards of living in the case study area, which would enable them to enjoy more modern lifestyles and homes like the city people.

In a different geographical location, an SIA method that reflects the practice of local culture is useful for predicting social impacts that involve indigenous people (Duncan, 2007). This is because many of the indigenous people practice a unique traditional culture, which gives them different experiences. Moreover, local living conditions further shape their life experiences (Gössling, 2002). Once local people have an experience with a similar pattern of social impact of development, the experience will be the bridge that link their lives to their

surrounding environment, and this relationship affects their feelings and perceptions toward changes happening around them in the future (Schroeder, 2007). This includes helping local people to see the development from different angles and to value the development from the viewpoint of others who have had different experiences. For example, the indigenous people who live near the jungle and believe in the presence of spirits in the jungle, have a special sense of attachment to the jungle. Any development taking place which involves or affects the jungle, means more than just an opportunity cost of removing use-values associated with trees, logs and more generally, forestry. It is also a matter of other traditional issues that relate to the beliefs in the spirits of the jungle.

In such situations as mentioned in the example above, the identification of possible

connections that link local culture to other contributors of social change, means that the social impacts of development can be estimated more accurately. The outcomes of this kind of estimation show more specific information about the possible ways that help the affected indigenous people and the decision-makers in dealing with potential changes.