Rural Industrialization and Social Cost: A Perspective From NEPA

• Main Author: Fitzpatrick, John S
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 01-06-1976
• Subjects: Decision Making; Environment; Environmental Standards; Federal Legislation; Futures (of Society); Industrialization; National Environmental Policy Act 1969; Research Methodology; Rural Development; Social Change; Social Cost; Values

In the context of meeting the requirements of environmental legislation, the social change perspective is inadequate because of what is not examined. The social change perspective fails to address a crucial concept in environmental impact analysis--the concept of social cost. It is not up to the researcher to define social cost, but it is his responsibility to accurately capture and faithfully portray the evaluations of the situation made by the subject population, especially the indigenous population whose lifestyles will be altered by the industrialization of their home territory. Adopting a social cost perspective to answer the questions posed by the National Environmental Policy Act requires an expansion of the list of variables routinely used to observe rural industrialization (e.g., increased levels of divorce, drunkenness, depression, etc.). A social cost perspective also requires a shift from distributive to interactive and interpretative research strategies which allow the researcher, planner, and decision maker to go beyond the mere distribution of a social phenomenon to an understanding of the pertinent viewpoints of causation and meaning. Typically, social scientists have taken a position denying participation in the decision making process; this is an irresponsible position when used in the environmental assessment process, where a critically important end product is sound decision making for the present and future. (JC)