Abstract Given the growing amount of attention shown to the social dimension of natural resources and mining governance, there is a need for more informed research-oriented approaches to studying social impacts. This article analyzes the features of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) studies from the academic research perspective and presents a framework for social impact research. By academic research, the article refers to studies on social impacts conducted purely for research purposes, not impact assessment processes. Research is always one aspect of the SIA process. At the same time, there is a lack of general methodological literature offering guidance on how assessing social impacts can contribute to social studies research. The guiding documents on SIA are largely intended for practical-level planning and management processes, which limits their applicability for academic purposes. The proposed framework draws both from traditional social science methods and existing scholarly and guiding literature on SIA. The research framework consists of four interlinked phases: 1) research preparations, 2) background studies (including proposed project, national and local context), 3) fieldwork, and 4) analysis. The framework is designed to direct attention to the relevant aspects of research methods, theory building, fieldwork implementation, and research choices for data analysis. Thus, the framework provides a flexible, but comprehensive, multi-level approach for examining social impacts, which can be adapted for a wide range of social-scientific mining research. The analysis and developed framework will help academic researchers better study the social impacts of mining and make better use of existing SIA studies in academic life.

中文翻译：

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研究社会影响的研究框架：在采矿领域的应用

摘要 鉴于对自然资源和采矿治理的社会维度的关注越来越多，需要更明智的以研究为导向的方法来研究社会影响。本文从学术研究的角度分析了社会影响评估（SIA）研究的特点，并提出了社会影响研究的框架。学术研究是指纯粹出于研究目的而进行的社会影响研究，而不是影响评估过程。研究始终是 SIA 过程的一个方面。与此同时，缺乏一般的方法论文献来指导评估社会影响如何促进社会研究。SIA 的指导文件主要用于实践层面的规划和管理过程，这限制了它们在学术目的上的适用性。拟议的框架既借鉴了传统的社会科学方法，也借鉴了关于 SIA 的现有学术和指导文献。研究框架由四个相互关联的阶段组成：1）研究准备，2）背景研究（包括拟议项目、国家和地方背景），3）实地考察，以及 4）分析。该框架旨在将注意力集中在研究方法、理论构建、实地工作实施和数据分析的研究选择等相关方面。因此，该框架提供了一种灵活但全面的多层次方法来检查社会影响，可适用于广泛的社会科学采矿研究。