scholarly journals Is this a Real Choice? Critical Exploration of the Social License to Operate in the Oil Extraction Context of the Ecuadorian Amazon

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8416
Author(s):  
Alberto Diantini ◽  
Salvatore Eugenio Pappalardo ◽  
Tim Edwards Powers ◽  
Daniele Codato ◽  
Giuseppe Della Fera ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
Procedural Fairness ◽  
Oil Extraction ◽  
Social License To Operate ◽  
Social License ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ecuadorian Amazon ◽  
Oil Company

The purpose of this research was to critically analyze the social license to operate (SLO) for an oil company operating in Block 10, an oil concession located in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The specific study area is an important biodiversity hotspot, inhabited by indigenous villages. A mixed-methods approach was used to support a deeper understanding of SLO, grounded in participants’ direct experience. Semi-structured interviews (N = 53) were conducted with village leaders and members, indigenous associations, State institutions, and oil company staff, while household surveys were conducted with village residents (N = 346). The qualitative data informed a modified version of Moffat and Zhang’s SLO model, which was tested through structural equation modelling (SEM) analyses. Compared to the reference model, our findings revealed a more crucial role of procedural fairness in building community trust, as well as acceptance and approval of the company. Procedural fairness was found to be central in mediating the relationship between trust and the effects of essential services provided by the company (medical assistance, education, house availability) and sources of livelihoods (i.e., fishing, hunting, harvesting, cultivating, and waterway quality). The main results suggested that the concept of SLO may not appropriately apply without taking into account a community’s autonomy to decline company operation. To enhance procedural fairness and respect for the right of community self-determination, companies may need to consider the following: Establishing a meaningful and transparent dialogue with the local community; engaging the community in decision-making processes; enhancing fair distribution of project benefits; and properly addressing community concerns, even in the form of protests. The respect of the free prior informed consent procedure is also needed, through the collaboration of both the State and companies. The reduction of community dependence on companies (e.g., through the presence of developmental alternatives to oil extraction) is another important requirement to support an authentic SLO in the study area.

scholarly journals Measuring Social License to Operate the Infrastructure Project in Bangladesh

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Md Manjur Morshed ◽  
Zaki Arafin ◽  
Salima Khan Nafi
Keyword(s):  
Procedural Fairness ◽  
Engineering Science ◽  
Institutional Trust ◽  
Varimax Rotation ◽  
Social License To Operate ◽  
Social License ◽  
The Social ◽  
Local Stakeholders ◽  
Infrastructure Project ◽  
Political Economic

Social license to operate is a measure to engage with and gain acceptance from the stakeholders for large infrastructure projects. The object of this study is to measure social license to operate an infrastructure project in Khulna city, Bangladesh. Predicated on an established model, 16 statements were selected as the basis for measuring the social license to operate. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 44 local stakeholders. Using varimax rotation, five different components were identified: socio-political, economic, procedural fairness, interactional trust, and institutional trust. The model was statistically tested and found to be a medium fit explaining the results. The findings are that the project has gained socio-political, economic, procedural fairness, and interactional trust of the stakeholders, yet lacks institutional trust factor to achieve a social license to operate. The paper recommends the inclusion of the social license to operate concept in infrastructure planning and implementation phases in Bangladesh. Journal of Engineering Science 12(2), 2021, 1-10

Extractive Industries and Public Participation in Russia: The Case of the Oil Industry in Izhemskii District, Komi Republic

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-163
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Britcyna ◽  
Soili Nystén-Haarala ◽  
Minna Pappila
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
Oil Industry ◽  
Komi Republic ◽  
Local People ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Private Governance ◽  
Social Partnership ◽  
Social License ◽  
The Social

This article focuses on the participatory rights of local people living in the areas of extensive oil industry operations in the Izhemskii district of the Komi Republic in Russia. The district has long been suffering from oil leaks and resulting negative environmental impacts. Lukoil-Komi bought the business directly after the Soviet era and inherited the ecological threats related to old and rusty pipelines. Lukoil-Komi has promised to put things in order, but a great deal remains to be done.This article scrutinizes how statutory law and private governance interact in protecting the participatory rights of local people living in the vicinity of oil production in Komi. First, we evaluate what participatory rights Russian legislation guarantees to local people when oil production arrives in a new area or when new wells are being explored or opened. Second, we elaborate how the major oil company in the region – Lukoil-Komi – fulfills its corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the area of participatory rights and how local people feel about their possibility to exercise their participatory rights. As participatory rights, we discuss both procedural justice with public hearings and distributive justice in the form of benefit-sharing between the company and local community. The wider perspective on participation is due to Russian CSR practices. In Russia, companies tend to earn their Social License to Operate (SLO) through benefit-sharing, often within private governance. This practice is based on the social partnership agreements between authorities and companies. These contracts have path-dependent features resembling earlier Soviet solutions. The same can be claimed to apply to a wider SLO with more focus on local communities. We argue that Lukoil-Komi has not yet been able to achieve an SLO (local acceptance) due to the lack of participatory rights and continuing environmental problems. Most local people are not willing to trade a clean environment and participatory rights for the social benefits the company offers. However, the social partnership agreement concluded between Lukoil-Komi and a local NGO, Izvatas, could be a step forward in achieving a local SLO.

Globetrotting adventures in digital data governance and ethics

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Liberty ◽  
Digital Data ◽  
Data Governance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social License To Operate ◽  
Social License ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hospitality Organizations ◽  
Pertinent Information ◽  
Tourism And Hospitality

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings This research paper formulates a framework for managing data ethically – which incorporates data governance – for tourism and hospitality organizations (THOs). The framework encourages THOs, like Airbnb and Booking.com, to move beyond mere compliance and into ethical trust-building among their customer communities. This creates the social license needed to overcome controversial challenges like data breaches, and the invasion of COVID passports and other civil liberty restrictions that impact the travel sector. A privacy framework balancing customer and THO interests rests on four pillars: Compliance, Privacy and ethics, Equitable exchanges of data, and Social license to operate. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Strategic problematization of sustainability reframing dissent in strategic communication for transformation

2021 ◽  
pp. 2046147X2110268
Author(s):  
Franzisca Weder
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Stakeholder Engagement ◽  
Strategic Communication ◽  
International Level ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Social License To Operate ◽  
Social License ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sustainability Movement

Involving stakeholders in organizational decisions is essential in the present sustainability movement, associated with the social license to operate and specific forms of communication in, from and about organizations with an impact orientation. This paper introduces a concept of strategic problematization of sustainability for transformation as innovative approach to Public Relations (PR), acknowledging the plurality of agonistic voices in stakeholder engagement processes in social, cultural and environmental transformations and challenging the normative concept of dialogue and solution- and consensus-oriented approaches to date. The article discusses the transformative potential of PR by reframing dissent and introducing problematization as ability to agonize and, therefore, as key process of constructive strategic communication for sustainable development. Three conversational procedures in water (scarcity) management on a local, national and international level were chosen to explore the potential of strategic problematization in relation to sustainability as normative framework of today’s society. The implications of the case studies and the conceptual framework expand existing engagement theories with a critical perspective and manifest the transformative potential of PR for a sustainable future.

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