The Role of the SKA in Enhancing Socioeconomic Sustainability – A Social Entrepreneurship Approach

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a “Big Science” infrastructure project. The project is expected to impact its local communities positively. Several studies conducted on the SKA project report significant improvements in the socioeconomic dynamics in the area. However, documented evidence shows that the claimed socioeconomic developments are difficult to define and measure, while they are largely irrelevant to the people of the Karoo. Thereby diminishing the positive impact claimed by the project. Big Science projects such as the SKA are established to advance the science knowledge enterprise. This thesis argues that these projects have a lateral mandate to uplift local communities as a form of return on their massive fiscal investments, while also necessitated by the need to gain and secure a social license to operate. It is generally difficult to quantify the social impact of Big Science initiatives in communities. This thesis uses Social Value as a practical approach, based on the philosophy of humanism integrated into social entrepreneurship, to deliver and measure socioeconomic impact. Using the sequential exploratory mixed methods approach, the study determines the nature of social value as defined by the community of Carnarvon and gauges the extent to which the social value exists in the community. The study found that the SKA project has made significant progress in uplifting the socioeconomic situation in Carnarvon, indicating Big Science projects’ ability to deliver on the lateral mandate of socioeconomic development. The findings and recommendations of this study provide a practical solution to socioeconomic intervention by Big Science projects.