The "International Principles for Social Impact Assessment" is a statement of the core values of the SIA community together with a set of principles to guide SIA practice and the consideration of 'the social' in environmental impact assessment generally. It is a discussion document for the impact assessment community to be used as the basis for developing sector and national guidelines. In the process of being developed explicitly for an international context, increasing pressure was placed on the conventional understanding of SIA and a new definition, with official imprimatur of an international professional body, has been formalised. "Social Impact Assessment includes the processes of analysing, monitoring social consequences, both positive and negative, of planned interventions (policies, programs, plans, projects) and any social change processes invoked by those interventions. Its primary purpose is to bring about a more sustainable and equitable biophysical and human environment".
Frank Vanclay (2003) studied this question.