ID: 1587
Presenting Author: Jane Munday
Session: 552 - Accelerating with Integrity: Strengthening Social Impact Assessment in the face of urgency and misinformation
Status: pending
Working in an ‘age of conflict’ means new competencies for SIA: storytellers, empathisers, synthesisers, relationship-builders, negotiators, advocates for communities and strategic advisers.
SIA practitioners are ‘boundary spanners working at the interstices of knowledges systems and cultures: like agricultural extension officers, who build relationships and trust, find common ground to convey new ideas, then act as interpreters of community values, interests and vulnerabilities to guide good planning and better decisions. The twin urgencies of climate change and intrusions of mining and renewables infrastructure are collapsing the timeframes for SIA practitioners’ work and placing them at the frontline of conflict between frustrated proponents and outraged communities. Working in an ‘age of conflict’ needs new competencies: storytellers conveying meaningful communication that resonates with the values and worldviews of affected communities; empathetic listeners with the emotional intelligence to understand context and vulnerabilities; sense-makers synthesising wisdom from diverse knowledge systems; mediators delving below discrepant value systems to navigate conflict; negotiators facilitating collaborative solutions; and professionals with the qualifications, independence and credibility to act as influential advocates for disempowered people and communities. Boundary spanning is lonely, ‘emotional labour’, wrestling with discrepant versions of the ‘public interest’ and raising uncomfortable issues. Survival requires strong support systems: a community of practice; legislative protections; certified practitioners and adequate resourcing. Above all social practitioners must be deployed early to pre-empt conflict and streamline planning with sound intelligence.
Dr Jane Munday is a community engagement and social impact assessment practitioner based in Australia. She has a PhD in cultural geography and advanced certificate in community engagement.