EIA in a risk society

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was developed and introduced in the 1960s during a time that was dominated by three key societal influences. These were the growth of modern environmental concern, the drive for more rational, scientific and objective environmental decision making and a desire for more public involvement in environmental decision making. The legitimacy of EIA, as a tool to aid decision making, lies in its ability to meet the requirements of all three demands, the chief among these being its ability to be a systematic scientific and rational approach to decision making. Yet today we live in a society that no longer accepts the rationalist model as either possible or desirable. The deference to ‘the expert’ and our trust in science and technology has steadily declined during the period of EIAs development and widespread use. Today, EIA still depends for its legitimacy on its claim to provide a systematic and scientific approach to assessments, while society has moved on. This paper examines this growing divergence and argues that it is time for a major re‐evaluation of the role of EIA in environmental decision making.

[1]  Branko Kontic.  Why are some experts more credible than others , 2000 .

[2]  P. Oosterveer.  Reinventing risk politics: reflexive modernity and the European BSE crisis , 2002 .

[3]  John Glasson,et al.  Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment , 1999 .

[4]  A. Fawcet.  [Urban and regional planning]. , 1974, Arhiv za higijenu rada i toksikologiju.

[5]  John Kenneth Galbraith,et al.  The New Industrial State , 1968 .

[6]  Ulrich Beck,et al.  Ecological Politics in an Age of Risk , 1995 .

[7]  David P. Lawrence,et al.  The need for EIA theory-building , 1997 .

[8]  Christopher Wood,et al.  Environmental Impact Assessment: A Comparative Review , 1995 .

[9]  Sergio Rajsbaum,et al.  Introduction , 2007, SIGA.

[10]  R. Beattie,et al.  Everything you already know about EIA (but don't often admit) , 1995 .

[11]  Joe Weston,et al.  EIA, Decision-making Theory and Screening and Scoping in UK Practice , 2000 .

[12]  Andrew Gamble,et al.  An introduction to modern social and political thought , 1981 .

[13]  R. Munn,et al.  Environmental impact assessment : principles and procedures , 1979 .

[14]  J. L. Rodgers.  Environmental impact assessment, growth management, and the comprehensive plan , 1976 .

[15]  Gilbert Smith,et al.  The Artificial Debate Between Rationalist and Incrementalist Models of Decision Making , 1980 .

[16]  R. Munn,et al.  Environmental Impact Assessment , 1977 .

[17]  David P. Lawrence,et al.  Planning theories and environmental impact assessment , 2000 .

[18]  H Roberts,et al.  Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity , 1994 .

[19]  Paul A Erickson.  Environmental impact assessment: Principles and applications , 1979 .

[20]  Leonard J. Barchak,et al.  The End of Ideology , 2019, Raymond Aron and Liberal Thought in the Twentieth Century.

[21]  C. A. Fortlage.  Environmental Assessment: A Practical Guide , 1990 .

[22]  M. Huxham,et al.  Science and Environmental Decision Making , 2000 .

[23]  Andrew Duff,et al.  Environmentalism, Middle-Class Radicalism and Politics , 1980 .

[24]  David Pepper,et al.  The Roots of Modern Environmentalism , 1984 .

[25]  Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen,et al.  Policy and practice reviews , 1994 .

[26]  E. Leknes,et al.  The roles of EIA in the decision-making process , 2001 .

[27]  Andrew Blowers,et al.  Environmental Policy: Ecological Modernisation or the Risk Society? , 1997 .

[28]  A. Vincent.  Modern political ideologies , 1992 .

[29]  John Kenneth Galbraith.  The New Industrial State , 1967 .

[30]  Ortwin Renn,et al.  The Social Amplification of Risk: A Conceptual Framework , 1988 .