Session Description
Social Impact Assessment is a maturing practice with professionals who have now committed their careers to this work. Over the past 30 years, in British Columbia (Canada) and elsewhere, it has evolved from a very brief baseline and high-level assessment to upwards of five discipline-specific yet inter-related and complex assessment chapters.
Drawing on the experiences of professionals who range from earlier to late career (10 to 30+ years in this industry), this session aims to hear their stories and how the practice has evolved while staying true to theoretical foundations of social sciences.
Looking back to look forward, we will draw on experiences to discuss emerging themes such as vulnerable groups or differential effects, community health and wellbeing, and the co-creation of effects assessment, mitigation, and management planning. We will tie these themes back to the origins of the practice. For example, consideration of differential effects has long been a part of theoretical foundations of social impact assessment, but the framework and language of the assessment have changed substantially. In BC, it is now a key lens for evaluating effects to populations.
We look forward to bringing with us the context of British Columbia, and hope to hear from practitioners from across other geographies on how social impact assessment methodologies have evolved and the unique experiences they may have.
Session Summary
This session draws on the experiences of professionals who range from earlier to late career (10 to 30+ years in this industry), to hear their stories and how assessment frameworks and methodologies have evolved while staying true to theoretical foundations of social sciences.
Session Chair
Kent Gustavson
WSP Canada Inc
Canada
Session Co-chair
Allison Takasaki
WSP Canada Inc
Canada