1st Edition

Socioeconomic Evaluation of Megaprojects Dealing with uncertainties

    264 Pages 28 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    282 Pages 28 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The governance and evaluation of ‘megaprojects’ – that is, large-scale, complex, high-stakes infrastructure projects usually commissioned by governments and delivered through partnerships between public and private organisations – is receiving increased attention. However, megaproject evaluation has hitherto largely adopted a linear-rationalist perspective to explain the frequent failure of such projects to meet the ‘iron triangle’ of performance criteria: delivering on time, within budget, and according to specifications. This approach recommends greater control and accountability to remedy megaproject ‘pathologies’.

    Drawing on empirical examples mainly from the transport sector and radioactive waste disposal, this book offers new perspectives to megaproject evaluation. Comprising contributions from leading experts in project evaluation and appraisal, this collection opens up new avenues by suggesting two ways of improving megaproject evaluation: 1) approaches that go beyond the dominant linearrationalist notion of policy processes, and emphasise instead the objective of opening up appraisal processes in order to enhance learning and reflexivity; and 2) approaches that extend evaluative criteria beyond the ‘iron triangle’, to cover the various socioeconomic impacts and preconditions for project success.

    This volume will be of great relevance to scholars and practitioners with an interest in megaprojects, energy and climate policy, radioactive waste management, urban design, and project planning and management.

    1. Introduction Markku Lehtonen, Pierre-Benoît Joly, and Luis Aparicio

    Part I: Socioeconomic evaluation of megaprojects: critical readings

    2. In Search of an assessment of the future: The case of the U.S. nuclear waste programme Basak Sarac-Lesavre

    3. Mega projects and mega risks: Lessons for decision-makers of large-scale transport projects: OMEGA Centre lessons derived from European, US and Asia-Pacific Case Studies Harry T. Dimitriou, E. John Ward & Philip G. Wright

    4. The Lyon-Turin high-speed railway project and the escalation of commitment Thomas Reverdy and Markku Lehtonen

    5. The Finnish success story in the governance of a megaproject: the (minimal) role of socioeconomic evaluation in the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel Markku Lehtonen, Matti Kojo and Tapio Litmanen

    6. How stakeholder and citizen participation influences evaluation criteria for megaprojects: the case of the Belgian LILW repository Anne Bergmans and Marlies Verhaegen

    7. Does technical risk dialogue entail socioeconomic valuation? The case of scientific dispute over copper corrosion in a spent nuclear fuel disposal project Tapio Litmanen, Matti Kojo, Mika Kari and Jurgita Vesalainen

    Part II: Novel approaches to evaluating the socioeconomic in megaprojects

    8. Ex ante evaluation of megaprojects in a time of uncertainty: What counts and what is countable in the Canadian context? Moktar Lamari, Jean-René Prévost & Line Poulin-Larivière

    9. The potential contribution of social impact assessment to megaproject developments Frank Vanclay

    10. Collective construction of social indicators of well-being: Analytical insights from an experiment Michel Renault

    11. Addressing the Evaluation-Implementation Gap in Transportation Infrastructure Research with Qualitative Comparative Analysis Stefan Verweij

    12. Conclusions Markku Lehtonen, Pierre-Benoît Joly, and Luis Aparicio

    Biography

    Markku Lehtonen is Associate Researcher at Centre CONNECT, ESSEC Business School and at GSPR, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France.

    Pierre-Benoît Joly, economist and sociologist, is Research Director at the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA) and Director of the Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Studies of Science, Innovation and Society (LISIS) at Université Paris-Est, France.

    Luis Aparicio is in charge of Social Sciences and Humanities at the R&D Division of the French Radioactive Waste Management Agency (Andra), France.