ABSTRACT
The foreboding realization that natural resources are finite and that critical shortages are more than a theoretical proposition has bolted legislators into enacting a spate of "protective" statuses. As a consequence of the National Environmental Policy Act and related legislation at the federal and state levels, the move to preserve, protect and enhance the environment is full fledged. A very crucial and long unattended aspect of the growing concern with environmental matters is a specific and formal mandate to integrate the social sciences into the planning and decisionmaking relative to natural resource development projects. It is suggested that four notions are basic to the formulation of a theoretical framework that will be applicable to specific as well as general circumstances in social impact research. The first concept is that of social development; the second is that of social structure and/or social organization; the third is quality of life; and the fourth is total social impact as differentiated from impact assessment.
