Maintaining legitimacy of a contested practice: How the minerals industry understands its 'social licence to operate'

Summary

This paper explores private companies managers understanding of Social Licence to operate (SLO) in the mining industry in Australia. Through interviews with 16 managers, authors discuss their conceptualisation of social licence in relation to notions such as legitimacy, approval, and consent. Their interpretation of social license in practice, and how they differentiate it from concepts such as CSR is also explored.