The importance of theory in shaping social impact monitoring: lessons from the Berg River Dam, South Africa

Abstract

The outputs and outcome of a social-monitoring programme is a direct result of the theoretical framework used by the practitioner. One approach is to adopt social impact monitoring frameworks that identify impacts through a deductive process of objective rationality. This often results in checklist reporting and a myopic focus on predetermined themes (such as employment, housing, education, health). This approach blinds the practitioner to issues that fall outside their frame of analysis. This paper is a narrative reflection by the authors on the changing theoretical frameworks evident at the different stages of social monitoring on the Berg River Dam. Lessons learnt are that: the purpose of social monitoring is to promote social sustainability; explicit theoretical models at each stage of the environmental assessment and management process (that is, at the social impact assessment, environmental management plan (EMP) design and EMP implementation stage) are imperative to guide the monitoring programme; and for social monitoring to become dynamic it needs to develop in a reflexive and inductive manner.