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Social license to operate

Colorado residents protest hydraulic fracturing.
Colorado residents protest hydraulic fracturing. (Photo: Flickr – Erie Rising)

A social licence to operate (SLO) refers to the acceptance or approval that organisations receive from local communities and stakeholders for their activities. While regulatory compliance provides formal permission to operate, social licence reflects the trust and credibility an organisation builds through ethical behaviour, responsible practices, and meaningful engagement. The concept has emerged from broader discussions around corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social acceptability, recognising that businesses and institutions need societal approval to function effectively—particularly in democratic contexts where public support influences policy decisions.

Social licence is not a formal agreement or document, but rather a dynamic and evolving state that depends on an organisation’s relationships with its stakeholders. It is shaped by factors such as transparency, fairness, sustainability, and trust—all of which influence whether a community continues to support or challenge an organisation’s presence and operations.

Introduction to social license

The following papers and reports explore social licence across different sectors, highlighting how it develops, its implications for businesses and policymakers, and how organisations can foster and maintain it. Later sections of this page also link social licence back to related concepts, including corporate social responsibility, social acceptability, stakeholder engagement, and risk communication.


Building engagement and social licence: Unpacking Social Licence to Operate and partnerships – developing rubrics for guidance and assessment
This 2019 report by Will Allen and colleagues describes and develops rubrics as a tool for planning and assessing initiatives in SLO and engagement associated with systems change. The report focusses specifically on partnerships as a particular form of engagement involving two-way communication and shared responsibility. Indicative rubrics are provided as a start to help agencies and other practice change proponents to develop clarity around the different components that underpin SLO and partnerships, and as a tool to guide and evaluate progress in these areas.


Social license to operate: Legitimacy by another name?
This 2017 paper by Joel Gehman and colleagues outlines the range of  key concepts and diverse frameworks potentially implicated in discussions of social license to operate. They highlight similarities and differences among the three main varieties of SLO. They then investigate the linkages between SLO and “legitimacy”. and review methods that have been usedto measure social license. Finally they point to implications for stakeholder engagement, emerging policy and future research.


Meaningful dialogue outcomes contribute to laying a foundation for social licence to operate
This 2017 paper by Lucy Mercer-Mapstone and colleagues shows empirically that dialogue – when meaningful – contributes to sixteen outcomes, some of which were trust, relationships, perceptions of fairness, social acceptance, shared decision-making, and legitimacy. They note that many of these outcomes have previously been proposed to be integral to the development of SLO in both the academic and popular literature.


The social licence to operate: a critical review
This 2016 paper by Kieren Moffat and colleagues presents a critical review of the emergence of the concept in industry practice over the last two decades. Recent applied research to measure and model the social licence is also examined to demonstrate how the roles of trust, fairness and governance may underpin the development of more sustainable, trust-based relationships between industry and society.


Community engagement and social licence to operate.
This 2014 paper by Melanie (Lain) Dare, Jacki Schirmer & Frank Vanclay considers what social licence is and how community engagement plays a role in achieving social licence. They argue that social licence is better conceptualised as a continuum of multiple licences achieved across various levels of society.


The paths to social licence to operate: An integrative model explaining community acceptance of mining
This 2014 paper by Moffat and Zhang shows that to understand how a social licence to operate is granted and maintained, we need to take account of the processes the applying organisation uses to engage with local communities. The results highlight the importance of fair treatment and high-quality engagement with communities, alongside mitigation of operational impacts, in securing and holding a social licence to operate.


Social license to operate: How to get it, and how to keep it
This 2013 working paper by Brian Yates and Celesa Horvath  examines the nature and attributes of social license and analyzes its growing importance as a critical success factor for resource development. The development of social license occurs outside of formal permitting or regulatory processes, and requires sustained investment by proponents to acquire and maintain social capital within the context of trust-based relationships. Often intangible and informal, social license can nevertheless be realized through a robust suite of actions centered on timely and effective communication, meaningful dialogue, and ethical and responsible behavior.


Business and society: defining the ‘social licence’
From BP in the Gulf of Mexico to Shell in the Niger Delta, business, NGOs and politicians increasingly talk about social licence to operate.  In this 2014 Guardian article John Morrison considers what it really means. He points to examples of where social license has been lost, from Shell in the Niger Delta, BP in the Gulf of Mexico, dam building in Myanmar to the GMO debate in Europe a generation ago. But there are also examples like Gap and Safaricom whose activities worked hard to build social license.


Three Ways to Secure Your Social License to Operate
This 2013 Forbes article by Paul Klein points to three foundations for establishing and maintaining a social license – i)  be a social purpose leader; ii) give more control to local communities and stakeholders; and iii) build partnerships with the right and the wrong NGOs.


…. and corporate social responsibility


Corporate social responsibility
This short article introduces the background to contemporary corporate social responsibility as philanthropic. It points to how it is now focuses on broader issues of sustainability and influenced by shareholders, partners and global reporting practice.


Why CSR? The Benefits Of Corporate Social Responsibility Will Move You To Act
This 2013 Forbes article by Devin Thorpe describes the findings of his interviews with dozens of corporate executives of large and small companies in an effort to understand the benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the corporation.


Social license is, of course, an outcome from the ways that our companies and institutions communicate and engage with their stakeholders. This thinking needs to be linked with associated methodologies around Stakeholder mapping and analysis. There are a number of other pages on this site that also link to material relevant to this area. Risk communication and engagement is directly related, also Managing participation and engagement. A number of other related areas can be found through the social learning section.

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