Chapter 13
Project acceptance strategy G. Dati Tunnel Euralpin Lyon Turin
CONTENTS 13.1 Introduction..................................................................................................... 351 13.2 The social and communication context of the 20th and 21st centuries............ 353 13.2.1 The stakeholders ................................................................................... 354 13.2.2 The path of creation of awareness and/or cooperation......................... 357 13.2.3 The strategies, the ‘significant’ contents and the communication tools .....358 13.3 Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 361 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... 362 References ................................................................................................................. 362 13.1
INTRODUCTION
Project acceptance strategies should be considered an integral part of the design of a major project such as tunnels. These projects must be conceived upstream, with a multidisciplinary team including engineers, architects, geologists (and other experts ‘typically’ integrated in the design phase) and also professionals who can support the client in managing the message perception and in the dialogue with the local areas, before, during and after the construction. According to international design experiences of different projects all over the world, these strategies are clearly needed (Chen et al., 2019). Mass communication theories and techniques can provide strategic support, especially to avoid the perception of a division between technicians and experts, on the one hand, who draw up the perfect project on paper, and a community, on the other, which has its own very clear concept of the common good (Lippmann, 1922). The research of recent years has started from different approaches (from project management to social and communicative processes), comparing experiences of major projects around the world and evaluating their successes and failures (Boateng et al., 2012). In summary, the results that emerged offer a key concept: the importance of communication in project management. Some more elements are as follows: • • •
The existence (and communication) of a strong strategic vision with regard to the project is the best starting point for the process of building consensus. Open and transparent communication must be part of upstream planning (Hertogh et al., 2008). Communication with local authorities, supervisory agencies and environmentalists is particularly delicate, as these are usually the stakeholders with the most negative approach (Di Maddaloni & Davis, 2018).
DOI: 10.1201/9781003256175-13
