Social impact assessment

Although SIA is usually applied to planned interventions, the same techniques can be used to evaluate the social impact of unplanned events, for example, disasters, demographic change, and epidemics.

SIA is important in applied anthropology, as its main goal is to deliver positive social outcomes and eliminate any possible negative or long term effects.

[2] SIA has been incorporated into the formal planning and approval processes in several countries, to categorize and assess how major developments may affect populations, groups, and settlements.

[4] Some of the most prominent figures include Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict, they have both have stressed that unity in cultures through their language, behavior, ideologies, and material creations.

[5] Examples of social impact assessments include looking at how people live in a society (kinship or nuclear setting), culture, community, medical knowledge, and political systems.