Social impact assessment

In this article social impact assessment is described and discussed. Social impact assessment is defined as "the process of identifying the future consequences of a current or proposed action which are related to individuals, organizations and social macro-systems". The main characteristics of this method are summarized. Methodology for this type of policy oriented social research is presented. Also the main types of social impact assessment projects are dealt with. Following this the most important problems encountered in this type of research are discussed and experiences are reported. Finally the perspectives of social impact assessment are explored. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.