Social Scientists' Contributions to Environmental Management.

To understand the role of social science in environmental management, we must explore the institutional settings within which such contributions take place. In the United States, much of this work is done in the context of environmental and social impact assessments, and is shaped by the legal requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. The issues of technological risk and waste management are likely to provide increasingly important contexts for social science input in the future. This article discusses the concepts of "socioeconomic impact assessment," and of managing and "mitigating" impacts. it then examines the role actually played by social and behavioral scientists in the NEPA context—a role that has been quite paradoxical. Drawing from waste management experiences, the closing sections of the paper provide a brief analysis of some of the reasons behind this paradox and discuss implications for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]