Socially Successful Projects in the Built Environment: Demystifying Social Value and Stakeholder Engagement

By Sarah Fitton and Simon Wilson

For built environment professionals, delivering socially impactful projects is more crucial and challenging than ever. This step-by-step guide provides an innovative approach to stakeholder engagement, empowering project teams to create meaningful social value through the stakeholder engagement process and build better projects.

Socially Successful Projects in the built environment will help the reader understand the theory behind a reframed approach to stakeholder engagement using a social value lens. The authors argue that projects in the built environment need to be technically feasible, financially viable, and socially successful. Project managers need to focus on all three elements, which are summarised as 'concrete, cash and connection'. Failing to meet that third criterion can lead to push back, protests, delays and potentially unsuccessful projects. This book focuses on the third of those elements (the social dimension) and provides a step-by-step guide to how a project can be socially successful. In summary, this is about delivering better projects for both the stakeholders and the project teams.

In Socially Successful Projects in the built environment, the authors unravel the complex relationship between social value and stakeholder engagement and reveal a transformative practical theory for effective collaboration and facilitation. Along the way, they address key issues such as design philosophy, scenario development, stakeholder analysis, optioneering and project learning, and provide practical advice on how to use these methods within real world projects. The book is essential reading for all built environment stakeholders and teams working to deliver better projects.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1041111959
• ISBN13: 9781041111955
• Release Date: April 2026
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 162 Pages