ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an area of applied anthropology broadly defined as social impact assessment (SIA). Research techniques as discussed by the authors here augment the step-by-step demonstrations of those tasks constituting each component phase of an SIA. However, social impact assessments tend to concentrate on both public and private projects, while the focus of evaluation research tends to be firmly in the public domain only. Similar legislation and guidelines have since been passed in other countries and within international organizations with the result that social impact assessment is increasingly being used by government agencies and commercial and non-profit-making bodies as part of a set of formal requirements both in developed and increasingly in developing countries.
