ABSTRACT
One of the basic purposes in holding the Research Conference on Public Involvement and Social Assessment was to determine whether the theologies of the practitioners were, in fact, borne out by research, or were almost entirely an act of faith. Thus, the term "research" was particularly important to distinguish this conference from other conferences that have been held on either public involvement or social assessment. A recent review of the social assessment literature by a team of researchers headed by James Thompson and Kristi Branch states as one of its major findings that the social structure does serve as a mediator between the "inputs" of a project into a community and what actually happens. The Creighton, Chalmers, and Branch chapter included in the report describes a number of other commonalities between public involvement, social assessment, and economic-demographic research. However, William R. Freudenburg is concerned with a facile acceptance of the links between public involvement and social assessment.
