TY - JOUR
T1 - Community engagement and social licence to operate
AU - Dare, Melanie
AU - SCHIRMER, Jacki
AU - Vanclay, Frank
N1 - Funding Information:
The research was part of the lead author’s PhD studies at the University of Tasmania. It was funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Forestry, with travel funding provided by the International Council for Canadian Studies. The research was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Tasmania (H9218).
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Achieving 'a social licence to operate' is important for organisations with long time horizons, high exposure to global markets and with a wide range of interested stakeholders. Community engagement is critical to achieve a social licence to operate, but its capacity to influence social licence is not well understood. Using case studies from forestry in New Brunswick, Canada and Tasmania, Australia, this article considers what social licence is, how community engagement plays a role in achieving social licence and how an alternative conceptualisation of social licence may improve the influence of community engagement in achieving a social licence to operate. Social licence is often conceived of as a single licence granted by a 'community'. We argue that social licence is better conceptualised as a continuum of multiple licences achieved across various levels of society. Viewed in this way, we can consider what is needed to achieve social licences at given points along that continuum, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of specific engagement techniques in achieving particular social licences.
AB - Achieving 'a social licence to operate' is important for organisations with long time horizons, high exposure to global markets and with a wide range of interested stakeholders. Community engagement is critical to achieve a social licence to operate, but its capacity to influence social licence is not well understood. Using case studies from forestry in New Brunswick, Canada and Tasmania, Australia, this article considers what social licence is, how community engagement plays a role in achieving social licence and how an alternative conceptualisation of social licence may improve the influence of community engagement in achieving a social licence to operate. Social licence is often conceived of as a single licence granted by a 'community'. We argue that social licence is better conceptualised as a continuum of multiple licences achieved across various levels of society. Viewed in this way, we can consider what is needed to achieve social licences at given points along that continuum, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of specific engagement techniques in achieving particular social licences.
KW - public participation
KW - social license to operate
KW - community forestry
KW - social forestry
KW - natural resource management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84905093415&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/community-engagement-social-licence-operate
U2 - 10.1080/14615517.2014.927108
DO - 10.1080/14615517.2014.927108
M3 - Article
SN - 1461-5517
VL - 32
SP - 188
EP - 197
JO - Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal
JF - Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal
IS - 3
ER -