From Map Follower to Navigator: Archetypes of Environmental Impact Assessment

ABSTRACT Environmental impact assessment (EIA) scholarship is commonly framed as a tension between efficiency and comprehensiveness paradigms. These paradigms describe a persistent tension but cannot explain how EIA operates through it. Drawing on social systems theory, this analysis traces that operation. A hypothetical tidal power EIA anchors the thought experiment. Three archetypal lenses guide the analysis: map follower, explorer and navigator. The map follower, efficiency‐leaning, follows predetermined routes. The explorer, comprehensiveness‐leaning, ventures into unmapped territory. The navigator finds paths through contradictions. Each lens foregrounds distinct problem‐solution dynamics that organise EIA's operations. The article therefore asks: How do these recurring dynamics sustain EIA over time? Conventional EIA scholarship often treats problems as obstacles to be overcome. This article reverses the framing: Problems are not overcome but recognised as conditions of operation. Each archetype's seasoned form renders its characteristic problem a working resource that sustains EIA's decision capacity over time.