A research framework for studying social impacts: Application to the field of mining

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Highlights

  • A framework describes “step-by-step” stages for designing research on social impacts.

  • “Social imagination” is a beneficial starting point for social impact research.

  • Theoretical and conceptual sensitivity is a necessary part of social impact analysis.

  • The social impact research framework can stimulate further academic research on social impacts.

Abstract

Given the growing amount of attention shown to the social dimension of natural resources and mining governance, there is a need for more informed research-oriented approaches to studying social impacts. This article analyzes the features of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) studies from the academic research perspective and presents a framework for social impact research. By academic research, the article refers to studies on social impacts conducted purely for research purposes, not impact assessment processes.

Research is always one aspect of the SIA process. At the same time, there is a lack of general methodological literature offering guidance on how assessing social impacts can contribute to social studies research. The guiding documents on SIA are largely intended for practical-level planning and management processes, which limits their applicability for academic purposes. The proposed framework draws both from traditional social science methods and existing scholarly and guiding literature on SIA. The research framework consists of four interlinked phases: 1) research preparations, 2) background studies (including proposed project, national and local context), 3) fieldwork, and 4) analysis. The framework is designed to direct attention to the relevant aspects of research methods, theory building, fieldwork implementation, and research choices for data analysis. Thus, the framework provides a flexible, but comprehensive, multi-level approach for examining social impacts, which can be adapted for a wide range of social-scientific mining research. The analysis and developed framework will help academic researchers better study the social impacts of mining and make better use of existing SIA studies in academic life.

Introduction

There is broad-based and long-term recognition that the mining industry and use of natural resources have significant social impacts on surrounding communities and that these impacts need to be analyzed and managed (Veiga et al., 2001; Solomon et al., 2008; Sairinen, 2011b; Franks, 2012a; Prno and Slocombe, 2012; Owen and Kemp, 2013). Mines shape local communities in many ways, from concrete changes in the physical and visual environment to alterations in demographics and cultural characteristics. Each stage of mine development, from exploration to final closure, induces specific social impacts (Joyce et al., 2018). Currently, managing social impacts and maintaining good community relations have become key factors for the success of mining operations. Assessing the social impacts in the context of mining is particularly important because mining projects operate at such a large scale and can last for such long periods of time that they create a group of complex social impacts, many of which are connected to environmental impacts, which again create new social impacts (Vanclay et al., 2015).

Previous studies on social impacts have mainly been conducted in close relationship with and as a part of Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (EIA & SIA) processes and practices (Joyce et al., 2018). Thus, SIA has evolved as a separate discipline within social sciences, a hybrid of social sciences and practice-oriented organizational and community analysis (Freudenberg, 1986; Rickson et al., 1990; Petrova, 2012, 38). At the same time, SIA always includes research and yields valuable material for academic research, but the applicability of its guiding documents for purely research purposes has been challenging, as they were mainly intended for practical-level planning and management processes.

Given the growing amount of attention being shown by academic researchers to the social dimension of natural resources governance, there is also a need for more informed research-oriented approaches to studying social impacts. Recently, several scholars have noted the need for a research framework (Ross and McGee, 2006; Howitt, 2011; Ostrom, 2009; Kirchher and Charles, 2016, 100–106). Moreover, the idea of analyzing social impacts as a research strategy was discussed, at least in some implicit forms, already during the early days of SIA process development (e.g., Bowles, 1981; Finsterbusch, 1982; Freudenberg, 1986; Burdge, 2004).

As a result of these discussions and our own experiences in studying the social impacts of mining, we became interested in exploring how SIA traditions can contribute to academic research on social impacts. By academic research, we refer to studies on the social impacts of mining conducted purely for research purposes, not IA processes.

In this article, we discuss the relevance of social impact research for mining and delineate a more informed framework for academic research on social impacts. Thus, since a SIA process also always includes research, we highlight the fact that the purpose of our work is not to re-invent or contribute to the SIA process, meaning that we are not aiming to develop any kind of new SIA process. Rather, following the definition of a research framework as a “schematic representation of the most important research phases” developed by Verschuren et al. (2010), we propose a framework that may provide academic researchers with a starting point to better study the social impacts of mining and make better use of existing SIA studies in academic life.

In the working process, we have made use of the following material. First, the article draws from experiences and ideas presented in existing social scientific research on the social impacts of mining and literature on social scientific methods. Second, and more importantly, we made use of the widespread tradition of focusing on SIA studies related to impact assessment and mining especially. The literature review includes scientific articles, edited science books, and SIA guidance books. We conducted the literature review by searching for peer-reviewed scientific articles from scientific databases, such as ScienceDirect and Scopus, with keywords and combinations of keywords: “mining,” “extractive industries,” and “social impact.” In addition, we consulted prior general scientific SIA literature (articles and books) from the 1980s and 1990s analyzing SIA research ideas (cf. Sairinen, 1992; Kohl and Sairinen, 2004). Finally, we used the empirical research experiences of our research group at the University of Eastern Finland.1 We have done academic studies on the social and community impacts of mining in many countries, including Finland, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Australia, and Kyrgyzstan (Mononen and Sairinen, 2020; Sidorenko et al., 2020b; Sihvonen and Sairinen, 2018; Sairinen et al., 2017; Tiainen et al., 2015; Tiainen et al., 2014a; Tervo, 2013; Sairinen et al., 2012). The studies have not been connected to any impact assessment procedures. In each of them, we noted that SIA studies provide a good and interesting basis for research, but there is a need to clarify the ideas and frameworks used for academic research concerning social impacts. Our suggestions mainly concern the field of mining, but the question can be applied to other sectors as well.

The article is structured as follows. First, we identify and analyze various approaches to conducting social impact studies in the mining industry. After that, our literature review takes ideas from the long tradition of studies on social impacts beginning in the 1970s and continuing to the present. Next, we present our social impact research framework. The framework includes the following four phases: 1) research preparations, 2) background studies, 3) fieldwork, and 4) analysis. To delineate the framework, we utilize concrete examples and experiences from the mining industry; however, the framework can be applied and tested in other fields where development interventions generate social impacts.

Section snippets

What are the social impacts and what is SIA?

In this article, “social impact research” refers to a research-oriented approach to analyzing social impacts that distances itself from studies conducted as part of EIA and/or SIA processes. With this term, we differentiate our approach from SIA studies conducted during various phases of impact assessment and planning processes.

The International Principles for Social Impact Assessment states that social impacts include all issues associated with a planned intervention (i.e., a project) that

SIA in relation to academic research

In our literature review, we sought to discover what types of research frameworks and approaches scholars employ in social scientific research on the social impacts of mining. When thinking about the connection between SIA and the social sciences, scholars have argued that SIA is a separate discipline within the social sciences, a type of applied policy analysis, a hybrid of the social sciences, and a combination of community studies and organizational analysis (Freudenberg, 1986; Rickson et

Framework

The social impact research framework provides “step-by-step” stages and content for designing scholarly research on social impacts. Fig. 1 presents the four phases of the framework: 1) research preparations, 2) background studies, 3) fieldwork, and 4) analysis. The phases include interlinked substages. Information and greater understanding are meant to be accumulated during the research process.

Social mindset for predicting and understanding

What makes the analysis of social impacts a unique field within the social sciences is the focus on

Concluding remarks

In this article, we have discussed the need for academic research on social impacts, with the mining industry as a focus area. We then developed a more informed framework for academic research on social impacts. To avoid any misunderstandings, the article does not aim to develop any kind of new SIA process, but to provide a social impact research framework making use of existing SIA studies for academic purposes. We approach the term “research framework” here as a schematic representation of

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This paper was produced in partnership with the H2020 IMP@CT project, which has received funding from the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant no 730411.

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