A hermeneutical approach to social value: A case study of national infrastructure planning in Oman

Social value thinking can increase the value and benefits of national infrastructure projects yet not all nations pay attention to this aspect of social value. This is either due to the lack of evidence on the impact social value thinking has at a project level, or, similar national policies that share the same scope of social value to promote additional benefits for communities affected by national infrastructure projects. With Oman being the country of investigation for this research, public expenditures follow a limited scope of social value thinking which mainly revolves in domestication of labour force (Omanisation), SMEs inclusion and local sourcing of materials. However, the long-term development plan of Oman, 2040 Vision Oman, is underpinned by a wider scope which strives to maximise the positive impact of future development on Oman's society as a whole. Therefore, this research seeks to widen the scope of the current social value thinking in Oman and equip such scope with a practical model that can assist policy makers, regulators, and, project implementers and operators to assess and maximise the outcomes of infrastructure sectorial projects. The research aims to develop a qualitative social value model for predicting infrastructure sectorial project outcomes in Oman that enhances the value for money spent. The model is developed for projects around 5 infrastructure sectors: (1) Energy, (2) Information and Communication Technology, (3) Transport, (4) Water and (5) Waste. In order to achieve the aim, the research approached social value of infrastructure project hermeneutically, through four hermeneutic cycles. The essence of hermeneutics is to elicit decision makers' knowledge horizons from their lived experiences on social value and national infrastructure projects in Oman. The hermeneutic approach can assist in dealing with many aspects of a dynamic phenomenon such as social value. In this research, hermeneutics is applied to elicit the lived experiences of 11 government decision makers to expand the knowledge horizons and practices for unlocking social value of Oman's development. As a result, a qualitative model that predicts different social value outcomes is developed and equipped with possible activities, outputs and reporting measures for assessing social value outcomes for each infrastructure sector. Based on the findings of the developed model, the energy sector in Oman is predicted to unlock the greatest magnitude of social value from the 5 sectors under study. This allowed for model to be tested and validate its applicability on the first solar energy plant in Oman through a retrospective case study strategy by performing a focus group and analysis of documents. The study provides practical insights for identifying and delivering social value in Oman, and, globally. Moreover, the model developed in the study can predict and assess social values that are sector based, thus allowing a better decision making process in maximizing the value for money spent on public expenditures. Equally important, this research assisted in limiting the research gap of assessing social value at a project level. Future research recommendation commends the assessment of different infrastructure sectorial projects to compare the differences of the sectors social value impact.