Using the Social License Concept to Appreciate Conflict in Stakeholder Networks

Abstract

A social licence to operate is critical for the success of any company, but is especially important for large resource and infrastructure projects. The social licence, which indicates stakeholders’ levels of acceptance or approval of a project, emerges, or not, from complex interactions among multiple stakeholders embedded in a network. Stakeholders may take conflicting positions over the social licence and form coalitions that interact and influence each other. In order to detect emerging conflicts and analyse the dynamics of stakeholder disputes, we propose a social license/stakeholder networks (SLSN) approach that combines measures of social license with social network analysis applied to stakeholder networks. After reviewing the literature that has helped the social license evolve from a metaphor to a management tool, we examine how the issues management literature helps shape the application of social network analysis in the most appropriate way for delivering an issues-aware and conflict-sensitive understanding stakeholder networks. We illustrate the SLSN approach with longitudinal data from the case of a company-stakeholder conflict surrounding the closure of a gold mine in Papua New Guinea. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limitations of the approach and suggest directions for further progress.