Workshop Leaders


Dr Nick Taylor

is a founding Director in Taylor Baines & Associates. With a PhD from the University of Canterbury he has been involved since the early 1980s in development of approaches and techniques for social assessment, including applications of soft systems techniques. A major text on social assessment (Social Assessment: theory, process and techniques) was first published in 1990, revised in 1995 and 2004 and recently reprinted.

Nick has particular skills and experience in assessing agriculture and land use change, understanding rural and urban communities, tourism planning, and applying social science to natural resource management issues. He is active in social assessment networks and training including the New Zealand Association for Impact Assessment and committees of the International Association for Impact Assessment, for which he is currently President Elect.

He is a Senior Adjunct at the University of Canterbury and is on the Advisory Board of the Social Science Research Centre at the University, and on the Social Science Committee of the Royal Society of NZ.

James Baines

is a founding Director of Taylor Baines & Associates. With an honours degree in chemical engineering, he complements a background in natural resource management and policy with skills in social assessment. He has put considerable effort into developing the analysis and presentation of results from social assessment. This is closely related to work applying soft systems methodology to a range of research and consulting projects. In the past few years, he has pursued interests in more integrated assessment, linking different assessment disciplines as well as linking technical assessments with stakeholder participation.

Over twenty years of applied social research and social assessment practice his interests have spanned at various times solid waste management, waste water treatment and disposal, gambling and casinos, harbour developments, marine farming and water-based recreation, prisons and shopping centre developments, school networks, energy infrastructure developments (wind farms and hydro-electric schemes), and urban structure planning. Recently, he has led several science-sector evaluations for the Ministry for Research, Science and Technology. James is experienced in the preparation and presentation of formal evidence in various judicial settings. He has also been contracted to provide teaching and in-service training, in New Zealand and in Asia. In 2002, along with fellow director Nick Taylor, he was engaged by the UNDP to assist the Federal Government of Malaysia in institutionalising Social Impact Assessment in various levels of government in that country.

Between 2000 and 2006, James was the section coordinator for the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) Section of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) and remains active in the organisation.