ABSTRACT
An initial success in preventing political rancour and saving resources made social impact assessment popular. Analyzing that success as against two other Social Impact Assessment (SIAs) is valuable in shedding light on the use of SIA by planners, decision makers and the public. Some near term forecasts of SIA indicated that there would be inadequate credit resources for the expansion of sewage facilities entailed by the mall, as well as increasing residential requirements, and that the businesses adjacent to the mall would find themselves in opposition to the widening of arterials required by the mall, but not financed by the mall. The potential market is great, but until enough planners and decisionmakers are aware of how social scientific research can ameliorate cost/benefit ratios, the market shall remain only potential. As demonstrated by the Portage instance, ideological commitments to progress can prevent utilization of SIA, especially if no party to the political process makes use of the critic’s function of SIA.
