Social impact analysis and development planning in the Third World /

The core concept of ``social impact analysis'' (SIA) is to assess the consequences of reformist or modernization projects in the perspectives of overall improvement of the quality of life in the affected society. Strongly influenced by anthropological and sociological concerns and methodologies, SIA has not been always welcomed by all Third World countries. Studies of such diverse regimes as those governing Mozambique, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Nepal show no discernible patterns to explain the acceptance or rejection of SIA. Mexican planners consider SIA an undue interference; profit-minded oil and gas interests in Canada viewed a government-sponsored preproject SIA study as an additional barrier to capitalist accumulation; and, in Marxist Mozambique, it is alleged that all development projects have in mind the interests of the people before they are launched. SIA offers much value as a postproject evaluative tool, but it will be long before capitalist, state-capitalist, and socialist planners will welcome it alike. Although the quality of essays varies, the collection makes an important contribution to the field and should be a required reading for policymakers, students, and academics of all ideological persuasions.-E.S. Pang, University of Alabama in Birmingham