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Benefits and Beneciaries: Contrasting Economic and Cultural Distinctions
Author(s) -
Smith Courtland L.,
Hogg Thomas C.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/wr007i002p00254
Subject(s) - resource (disambiguation) , desert (philosophy) , cultural values , social benefits , environmental resource management , set (abstract data type) , geography , natural resource economics , sociology , environmental science , political science , social science , economics , computer science , law , epistemology , computer network , philosophy , quality (philosophy) , programming language
People and their values are the basic elements of social and cultural systems. To understand adequately the significance of benefit‐cost ratios used in water resource development project justification, knowledge of the people involved is required, as well as recognition that benefit‐cost decision making is part of a set of cultural values governing relationships among people. Comparative observations of peoples of the Salt River valley of Arizona, the Pacific Northwest, and the Kalahari desert of Africa suggest new areas of questioning relative to people's role performance and their cultural values in resource development. These observations show interesting differences in the nature of role performance relative to receiving water resource development benefits and repaying the cost of creating these benefits, and significant differences in the cultural values for obtaining water resource development.