Local community engagement as a practice: an investigation of local community engagement issues and their impact on transport megaprojects' social value

Abstract

PurposeTransport megaprojects often struggle to offer social value (SV) that meets local communities' needs. This problem is embedded in how local communities' views are captured and incorporated into SV plans through local community engagement (LCE). By problematising the literature, this article aims to identify LCE issues and their impacts on SV plans at the front-end of transport megaprojects.Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical lens of the study is the practice theory developed by Schatzki (2016, 2005). The authors conceptualised LCE as a practice and conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with UK practitioners. The authors collected data in three steps from three types of practitioners involved in LCE practice and SV planning: project managers, LCE experts and SV experts.FindingsThe authors identified 18 LCE issues with thematic analysis and clustered them into five themes. These issues impact LCE with five mechanisms. Findings show that a weak link between LCE and SV plans due to the issues reduces LCE to a tick-box exercise and presents a distorted view of local communities. This reduces SV plans to the bare minimum for project approval instead of offering relevant SV to local communities. Addressing the issues goes beyond changing the approach of project teams to engagement (from instrumental to normative) and requires changing the practices.Originality/valueFor the first time, the study uses practice theory to conceptualise LCE as a practice, following the notion of project as practice. The study problematises the literature to address the under-represented link between LCE and SV plans.

Sustainable development of transport infrastructure in the system of national economy

“…At the same time, sustainable transport infrastructure in a national economy is implemented through a number of applicable approaches that can be translated into actionable initiatives. These practical strategies are the following: investment in public transit (Raza et al, 2023); promotion of non-motorized transportation (Das et al, 2022;Shah et al, 2023); incentives for electric vehicles (EVs) (Alghuson, 2023;Chakwizira, 2022;Du et al, 2022); congestion pricing (Cipriani et al, 2019); urban planning for transit-oriented development (TOD) (Ghafouri-Azar et al, 2023); fleet modernization and efficiency programs (Wheat et al, 2019); smart traffic management systems (Chakwizira, 2022;Raza et al, 2023); community engagement and education (Babaei et al, 2023); regulatory measures and standards (Jelti et al, 2023).…”

“…Community engagement and education are crucial elements in the development of sustainable transport infrastructure, fostering a sense of inclusivity, awareness, and shared responsibility among residents (Babaei et al, 2023). In the context of sustainable transportation, community engagement involves involving local residents, businesses, and stakeholders in the planning and decision-making processes.…”

New frontiers in delivering public infrastructure

“…(Brunet & Baba, 2023). Research shows that investing time in this phase, carefully and transparently engaging with local communities and the civil society, translates to better projects outcomes and more social acceptability (Baba et al, 2021;Babaei et al, 2023;Chbaly & Brunet, 2023). In the case of the Quebec New Hospital project started in 2013, one of the largest in Canada with an estimated cost of about $2 billion CAD, an inclusive approach allowed enhancing healthcare and delivering facilities with a better fit for purpose and use (Chbaly & Brunet, 2022).…”

Analyzing the role of social value in megaprojects: toward a new performance framework

“…These include new frameworks that emphasize the social pillar in sustainable project management, the marginalized role of local communities in a context of increasing capital and political concentration, and the development of a common and comparable set of indicators that may increase understanding of value distribution among local communities. With a few exceptions such as Gil (2023) and Babaei et al (2023), these are still under-represented in the megaproject literature.…”

“…However, researchers and practitioners have generally underestimated the environmental and the social dimensions of sustainability (Wang and Pitsis, 2020), focusing instead on economic issues. Given the emergence of the environmental dimension in the last few decades (Silvius and Tharp, 2013), there is now increased awareness of issues of social responsibility, collective interest and social value both for organizations and their local communities (Linzalone and Lerro, 2014; Babaei et al , 2023; Corazza et al , 2023). It is therefore crucial to have a better understanding of the interactions between megaprojects and social impact assessment disciplines (Esteves et al , 2012).…”