Journal of Critical Realism 5 (1):32-60 (2006)
Abstract |
This paper discusses the practice of cost-benefit analyses of transportation infrastructure investment projects from the meta-theoretical perspective of critical realism. Such analyses are based on a number of untenable ontological assumptions about social value, human nature and the natural environment. In addition, main input data are based on transport modelling analyses based on a misleading `local ontology' among the model makers. The ontological misconceptions translate into erroneous epistemological assumptions about the possibility of precise predictions and the validity of willingness-to-pay investigations. Accepting the ontological and epistemological assumptions of cost-benefit analysis involves an implicit acceptance of the ethical and political values favoured by these assumptions. Cost-benefit analyses of transportation investment projects tend to neglect long-term environmental consequences and needs among population groups with a low ability to pay. Instead of cost-benefit analyses, impact analyses evaluating the likely effects of project alternatives against a wide range of societal goals is recommended, with quantification and economic valorisation only for impact categories where this can be done in an ontologically and epistemologically defensible way
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Keywords | cost-benefit analysis ontology critical realism politics epistemology valorisation |
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ISBN(s) | |
DOI | 10.1558/jocr.v5i1.32 |
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References found in this work BETA
Valuing Public Goods: The Purchase of Moral Satisfaction.Daniel Kahneman & Jack L. Knetsch - forthcoming - Environmental Values.
Prediction, Regressions and Critical Realism.Petter Næss - 2004 - Journal of Critical Realism 3 (1):133-164.
Citations of this work BETA
Learning Critical Realist Research by Example: Political Decision-Making in Transport.Steve Melia - 2020 - Journal of Critical Realism 19 (3):285-303.
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Unsustainable Growth, Unsustainable Capitalism.Petter Næss - 2006 - Journal of Critical Realism 5 (2):197-227.
What Kinds of Traffic Forecasts Are Possible?Petter Næss & Arvid Strand - 2012 - Journal of Critical Realism 11 (3):277-295.
Interdisciplinarity and Climate Change: Transforming Knowledge and Practice for Our Global Future.Ted Benton - 2013 - Journal of Critical Realism 12 (2):260 - 265.
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