Social Licence to Operate

Basilicata, the ”Italian Texas”, shows significant hydrocarbon availability, due to the presence of the most important onshore oil concession system in continental Europe. The main oil field, the Val d'Agri concession, located in a rural area of great environmental and naturalistic relevance southeast of Potenza, has played a strategic role in the Italian energy picture. The oil industry's interest in the valley, which began in the early 1900s, took final shape in the 1990s when the construction of the main oil infrastructures. In 1998, a 20-year agreement between the Basilicata Region, the State and ENI (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi) was signed defining strategies aimed at promoting economic development. Following two decades of extraction, in 2021, an updated version of the deal was ratified to extend the concession to 2029 and a new Protocol of Intent was signed by ENI indicating environmental compensation measures directed at environmental protection and territorial development. However, oil extraction activities, including those in the Lucanian context, are among the projects generating the greatest socio-environmental impacts. Within the international extractive sector, over the past two decades the management of reputational damages linked to these categories of impacts led to the development of the concept of social license to operate, SLO, defined as the continued acceptance and approval of a mining development by local communities and other stakeholders who can influence profitability (Thomson, I., & Boutilier, R. 2011). This paper considers the SLO model developed by Thomson and Boutilier (2011) and later extended by Jijelava and Vanclay (2017) to assess the state of the art in the relationship between Lucanian communities and ENI.  This research aims to provide through the use of SLO a picture of the current level of legitimacy, credibility and trust enjoyed by the company, questioning the practical use of the social license to operate as a useful tool to analyze socio-environmental conflicts. From the perspective of political ecology, conflicts are identifiable by the presence of unequal power relations in a resource economy in which conflict emerges as violence in the broadest sense, in its physical, structural and symbolic forms (Perreault et Al., 2015).

In recent decades, the social and natural world has undergone radical changes. According to the last IPCC report, human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1°C above 1850-1900 in 2011-2020 (IPCC, 2023). Climate change is a symptom of a planetary emergency affecting fundamental human provisioning systems and implicating a series of socioeconomic threats including violence, economic inequality, unemployment, systemic financial risk, political instability, and community vulnerability because of which both our planet and societies have undergone profound evolutions (Perreault et al., 2015). Because of this evolution, in the global context, as well as in Italy, a process of modification of habits and development of the design and implementation of strategies to mitigate and adapt to global warming is now in progress. However, it is a fundament of this research the belief that this debate would be deficient without an analysis of the role of hydrocarbons and resource-related conflicts. Hydrocarbons have been the key scarce, strategic resource needed for almost all capitalist enterprises (Hein, 2021; Homer-Dixon, 1999; Klare, 2002) and in the 40-year period 1980-2019 annual CO 2 emissions produced by fossil fuels represented 83% of anthropogenic CO 2 emissions (Chen et al., 2022). One point to draw is that, the future of our species, the living conditions of next generations and the standards of inter and intra-generational justice, will depend upon the management of the oil and gas sector. This implies an honest evaluation of the current situation, not only from an economic but also sociopolitical and environmental point of view. Considering the socioeconomic and environmental dimensions of the "petroculture" (Wilson et al., 2017) would provide a preliminary map, of issues, fractures and tensions, from which envisioning pathways and new socioeconomic forms of development would become possible. This article is based on research work carried out during the year 2023 focusing on the socio-political and environmental dynamics of an area subject to oil extraction, the Italian region of Basilicata. A region in which companies and local communities cohabit, build their relationships and face each other's interests. Multiple territories and communities, on the development journey, crossed the "oil curse" (Behrends et al., 2011) finding themselves at the centre of economic dynamics that dictate the order of global downturns. Basilicata is among those and become a strategic hotspot in European and Italian energy panorama. Responsible for the production of 82.11% of Italy's crude oil for the year (UNMIG, 2023) Basilicata is home to the biggest onshore concession in Italy and continental Europe, the Val d'Agri concession. Extraction rights of this mother lode are granted to ENI SpA, Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, an integrated energy company 1 that operates mainly in the hydrocarbon extraction sector which became a prominent stakeholder in the social fabric of Val d'Agri. Energy systems directly involve the spatial dimension of societies as the result of a complex process of reorganizing the available forms of energy according to the economic, social and political relations affecting the places of extraction, production and consumption (Diantini, 2022). The inextricable link between the spatial and territorial structures that characterize energy resource gives the combination of energy systems and societies an intimate relation. In this perspective, the company, in its 20-year-long presence, carried on extractive projects while being able to braid strong relations with local interlocutors. The present contribution examines the presence of factors of conflict between Val d'Agri stakeholders assessing social dynamics through the lenses of Social License to Operate (SLO) answering the question of whether SLO could be

This study examines the effect of corporate sustainability expenditure on host community satisfaction from the perspective of the SPDC's Global Memorandum of Understanding (GoMU), focusing on the host communities of oil companies in Rivers and Bayelsa. The environmental, social, and fiscal dimensions of corporate sustainability expenditures were analysed, whereas community satisfaction is measured in terms of community trust, attachment, and quality of life. The research utilised a mixed-method design. The primary data were analysed using Pearson Correlation and Cross-Sectional Multiple OLS regression. The findings indicated that none of the three dimensions of corporate sustainability expenditure (environmental, social, and economic) significantly impact community trust. Based on these findings, the study concludes that GMoU has not yet addressed the numerous socioeconomic and environmental challenges facing oil-producing communities. Among the recommendations is that SPDC should be more transparent in its relationships with its host communities and eliminate all barriers surrounding the implementation of the GMoU.

Projects producing environmental or social change within a community have the potential to cause contestation. The Social Licence to Operate (SLO) and how it might be earned are examined in this paper. A new approach, the IUE Model (Identify, Understand, and Engage), is suggested to better facilitate conflict reduction and thus enhance project acceptance and long-term sustainability. While the literature often portrays communities as homogeneous, the research revealed that individuals or groups constituting the 'community' were remarkably diverse, even at the local level. Apart from those directly affected by the project, there were numerous "influencers" attempting to sway opinion. Identifying the various community elements is the first vital step in earning acceptance. Effective engagement necessitates understanding the diverse motivations of communities supporting or opposing the project. Support was motivated by potential benefits, either for the individual or the community. Reasons for opposition were far more nuanced, ranging from perceived personal impact to environmental and ecological objections. Engagement requires Procedural Justice (are the rules and procedures fair?), Interactional Justice (are all parties treated fairly?), Environmental/Ecological Justice (going beyond legal compliance to ensure no harm) and Distributive Justice (beyond CSR to fair benefit distribution in line with needs and capabilities). These elements are essential for sustainable interaction. Engagement is not unidirectional; it requires all parties to treat each other with respect and dignity, in line with Ubuntu's underlying principles of cohesion and reciprocal value. The Ubuntu lens provides a decolonised basis for considering justice, offering the insight that while communities have the right to award or withdraw their acceptance, their actions may impact their rights. The paper concludes with an explication of the IUE (Identify, Understand, and Engage) Model, providing a new understanding of how acceptance is earned and offering pragmatic guidance that can be understood and adopted in practice.

In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters of Laws degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of the University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Dean of the College of Law. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis.

In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters of Laws degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of the University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Dean of the College of Law. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis.

Is foreignness a liability or an asset when firms decide on CSR spending? We examine how foreign ownership influences CSR overspending, defined as spending that exceeds legally mandated thresholds, in emerging markets. Using data from 320 publicly listed firms in India (2015-2023), we find that higher foreign ownership is associated with lower CSR overspending, challenging the assumption that foreign firms are more generous CSR spenders. This relationship is moderated by the ESG reputation of the foreign owner; owners recognized for "doing good" tend to reduce overspending, while those linked to controversies increase it. Our contingency-based perspective suggests that whether foreignness acts as a liability or an asset depends on firm-specific characteristics, complementing research that emphasizes institutional-level explanations for foreign firm behavior in emerging markets.

The paper reviews the process involved in developing a transdisciplinary Master’s degree in Global Change. It first considers the meaning of the various disciplinarities before reviewing the team selection and development process. It provides an overview of the research behind and development of the curriculum, and discusses dealing with academic administration. It finally provides an overview of the teaching experience. Lessons learned cover teams, their selection and development; structures and the work required to address administrative challenges; course design and the issue of transdisciplinarity; and teaching, including the use of various alternative teaching and learning methods are presented. This is followed by a postscript - an overview of a course module and students’ responses.

When construction projects are halted or slowed by conflicts with stakeholders, they have lost their social license. Social licenses are granted by stakeholder networks, which include community groups, among others. Project managers would benefit from approaches that can predict which groups or coalitions within the stakeholder network have sufficient influence and motivation to delay progress and that can suggest interventions to reduce that risk. We present an integration of theories and methods that has been successfully used in the extractive industries to maintain a high level of social license. We define the social license concept, noting its embeddedness in stakeholder theory and the resource dependence view of the firm, and how it has been elaborated enough to become measurable. Then we integrate it with social network analysis and methods for quantifying stakeholders' issues and concerns. Key benefits are the ability to identify minority clusters that have sufficient influence to dominate the majority and the specification of network interventions to raise the level of social license. We use an example of a proposed housing project to illustrate how the proposed approach produces practical stakeholder relations strategies for gaining and maintaining a social license to build.

The study examines the experience of Shell Petroleum Development Corporation (SPDC) in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices. The study observes that the experience of SPDC is one of deep frustrations occasioned by inappropriate and ineffective stakeholders' engagement. The study also observes that aside from making host community encounter repeated deprivations, the SPDC in the Niger Delta fails to adequately involve stakeholders in its CSR agenda in ways that are acceptable. All these raised the challenge of designing best CSR practices for stakeholders' engagements to address communities that perennially suffer the negative impacts of business activities. The study concludes by attempting a template for global best practices for sustainable stakeholder engagement with hostile host communities in CSR practices in order to achieve sustainable business practices.

The purpose of this paper is to research indigenous policy after the 1988 Federal Constitution in an attempt to understand the socio-historical bases on which the political reorganization of indigenous people both inside and outside their territory took place, with a focus on the Akwẽ-Xerente people. Its general objective is to analyse the historical and cultural processes of indigenous policy after the 1988 Federal Constitution in an attempt to understand the historical bases on which the political reorganization of the Akwẽ-Xerente indigenous people took place inside and outside their territory. The specific objectives are: to learn about the history of indigenous policy in Brazil; to understand the changes that have taken place in indigenous policy and the way of life of the indigenous people since the 1988 Federal Constitution; to see how the Akwẽ-Xerente indigenous people currently live, especially in relation to the survival and livelihood of their families.

Administrative tribunals seem to go about their business in a manner which does not command much attention outside the coterie of specialists who work in the area. This seems a great pity, as the matters with which such forums deal are often of significance to the public at large. Occasionally a decision will command a broader audience and the public may then see the implications of what goes on behind doors which are only nominally open to all. Riverlake Residents Association\u27 is one decision which has, in its short life, enjoyed intense public scrutiny. 2 The results of this attention are not yet manifest, but this commentator trusts that some of the less salutary aspects of the case will be authoritatively and promptly addressed by the courts, the Legislature or the Nova Scotia Municipal Board itself

Decades of aggressive marketing to Australians has led to several misconceptions about gas. In reality, gas is far from clean; it is a polluting fossil fuel that is already harming our health, wellbeing and, of course, the climate. With more gas in the mix, this risk of harm only increases.

This report is about Australia’s gas industry, the threat it poses to our health, and the way out: of kicking the gas habit for a cleaner, healthier, and more prosperous future.

Many localities in regional Australia have experienced a rapid move from a rural based economy to an extractive one, due to a 'resources boom'. The central aim of this research was to begin to investigate how such rapid industrialisation might influence the relationship between local residents and their environment. A social survey was conducted to investigate if and how environmental values and perceptions are shaped by: a) employment mode (permanent resident or mobile workforce); and b) place setting (urban, rural, or industrial). Surveys occurred in urban, rural and industrial towns in coastal Queensland and South Australia, and tested for landscape preferences and environmental values. Respondents showed a preference for 'naturalistic' coastal landscapes, however respondents that live or work in industrial settings have a greater tolerance for industrial intrusion into the landscape. Industrial workers and residents were less likely to endorse the values of the New Ecological Paradigm. Contrary to public perception, Fly-In Fly-Out workers were more likely than other workers to value the marine environment for its intrinsic worth. Our findings illustrate the complexity of the relationship between industrialisation, employment, and environmental values, and suggest that an industrial place setting, or mode of employment, can erode one's sense of connection to the natural environment.

We address the weaknesses inherent in the social risk assessments undertaken for business, especially in the extractive industries. In contrast to the conventional approach that considers consequence to the company rather than to impacted communities, conformance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights requires that consequence to affected communities has precedence. In order for social risks to be properly assessed, we consider that: companies need to know and understand the human rights impacts of their activities; contemporary approaches to project impact and risk assessment need to be adapted to consider human rights; and environmental impact assessment (EIA) and social impact assessment (SIA) methods need to be adapted to give greater attention to impacts on human rights. Using an example from the mining, oil and gas sector, we provide a method that differentiates social risks from business risks, and we position impact assessment as an instrument that actively facilitates the improved identification, analysis and management of social risks. Practical adaptations to SIA activities and risk assessment processes are provided. Taking human rights impacts into account and using the dimensions of gravity, extent, vulnerability and remediability, we nominate criteria to assess the significance of negative social impacts.

This paper summarises results from empirical research with the broad aim of exploring societal responses to CO 2 storage, framed around the concept of social license to operate (SLO). The essential characteristic of SLO is based on a partnership between communities, operators and government and is thus dependent on a variety of factors that contribute to building trust between the stakeholders. Drawing on data from media analysis, stakeholder interviews and focus groups deployed in two locations in the UK, we explore social factors that could influence an emerging SLO for CO 2 storage in the UK, drawing lessons from an analogous technology.

Shale gas has become an energy policy priority in the United Kingdom in light of profitable extraction activities in the United States. Since 2012, the UK Government has created key economic drivers to encourage shale exploration, whilst growing activism in affected site communities has stirred significant media and academic commentary. This study examines the growing national debate as a matter of discourse; adopting an argumentative discourse analytic approach to assess data collected from stakeholder interviews (n=21) and key policy actor statements quoted in broadsheet newspapers. We explore three dominant 'storylines' emerging in relation to shale gas policy. 1) "Cleanliness and dirt" concerns the relative framing of the environmental benefits and harms of shale gas; 2) "energy transitionspathways and diversions" concerns geographic metaphors of transitions to carbon intensive and low-carbon energy systems; and 3) "geographies of environmental justice" concerns divisions of economic benefit distribution, environmental impact and procedural fairness. We find that central government policy rhetoric emphasises economic development, regulatory oversight and distribution of benefits to site communities, whilst minimising discussion of the implications of shale gas for anthropogenic climate change. The role of these discourses in influencing shale gas policy is discussed.

This article interrogates the concept of the "social licence to operate"defined here as "community acceptance of mining"from a community perspective. It focuses on the case of South Africa's peri-urban areas, which are both interesting and unique due to the country's transition from apartheid to democracy, and the impact this has on company-community relations, and on the social licence. Most people who reside in communities in periurban South Africa do not own land and struggled against apartheid. They continue to live marginal lives, with limited economic opportunities. These communities are not governed by traditional authorities or chiefs so defining community leadership and formulating its legitimacy is a challenge. Through an interrogation of the social licence phenomenon, using legitimacy theory as an underpinning framework, we identify several factors which impact on the community's ability to "grant" a social licence. We conclude that if conditions relating to these factors are unfavourable, the requirements for a social licence cannot be met. We focus specifically on the "leadership legitimacy" gap within communities, and the impact that this has had on communities' ability to influence the social licence outcome. Through an in-depth exploration of the phenomenon from the perspective of two mining communities, we introduce a new theoretical component referred to as "community legitimacy", which better represents the reality experienced within, and amongst, communities.

This article explores the Social License to Operate (SLO) in relation to seabed mining operations. The SLO has grown in importance over the years, and mining companies are increasingly aware of its importance to reduce social risks. However, the SLO should not be seen as a separate entity but is instead embedded into the Legal License to Operate (LLO) and Political License to Operate (PLO). Recognising this interaction, we developed a conceptual framework in which the fundamental process-related factors of the SLO (trust and legitimacy) and the different levels of the SLO (status) are connected to the context provided by the LLO and PLO. This article presents this conceptual framework and applies it to the case of marine diamond mining in Namibia. The framework was found to be useful for analysing the SLO of marine diamond mining in Namibia, particularly because the inclusion of the context increases understanding of how the manner of organising stakeholder engagement and the role of the government in the LLO and PLO have repercussions for the different process-related factors of the SLO and its resulting status. However, this article presents only a first step and calls for more comparative research to advance empirical and conceptual clarity of which context factors of the PLO and LLO interact in what way with the SLO process and status.

Se analiza la dimensión comunicativa del proceso de licenciamiento social de un proyecto de cobre en el Sur del Perú en un contexto de conflictividad socioambiental. Se desarrolla un estudio de caso entrevistando 38 personas entre líderes y población, a favor y en contra del proyecto, comunicadores locales y periodistas regionales y a funcionarios de la empresa. Se analiza la estrategia comunicativa desarrollada por la empresa y la respuesta de los grupos opositores al proyecto. Los resultados muestran que los pasivos reputacionales de la empresa se constituyen en condiciones que estructuran el conflicto, pero que no son abordados por la estrategia de comunicación implementada. Además, la empresa al optar por una estrategia de marketing logra impactos en el corto plazo para generar apoyos al proyecto y cumplir con los procesos administrativos legales. Sin embargo, la estrategia de comunicación no incorpora un enfoque de prevención y transformación de conflictos. Por tanto, no se mej...

Why is the CIGEO project extremely dangerous? How can it be stopped? by Hugues HENRI
Emmanuel Macron's nuclear revival in France in 2022 is in full swing, with laws to facilitate, accelerate and smooth the way for this revival already passed by a relative presidential majority associated with the right and extreme right, as well as the questionable and dangerous merger of IRSN and ASN. The enormous financing of Macron's nuclear program will further over-indebt France, already the most indebted country in the OECD, but above all, he is far from finished with the risks that this program entails, notably that of storing and reprocessing (very) long-lived highly radioactive waste, which is supposedly resolved by the ANDRA (French national radioactive waste management agency) project called CIGEO, located at Bure, in the Meuse region. The CIGEO project?  What is to be done with the most dangerous nuclear waste, which will remain so for several thousand years? EDF and the nuclear industry still have no answer to this question. In the absence of any means of reducing the harmfulness of this waste, and faced with its accumulation, the French National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra), in charge of the long-term management of radioactive waste produced in France, would now like to bury it. Hiding this hazardous waste, without reversibility or long-term control, is not a solution at all, when other options are available.