New Article in Resource Policy: Towards a Relational View on SLO

What does it take for a company’s operations to be accepted by the people most affected? The "Social License to Operate" (SLO) is often used in resource extraction projects to signal community acceptance – and frequently discussed in managerial literature as something to be achieved from a corporate perspective.

In their new article published in Resources Policy, Johannes Glückler and Denise Gutiérrez challenge this dominant managerial view, which tends to reinforce top-down narratives and functions as an appeasement strategy.

Instead, the authors propose understanding SLO as a relational, institutional process, not a corporate tool. They define SLO as a social institution: a stable pattern of interaction based on shared, legitimate expectations between companies and local communities and rooted in mutual accountability.

This institutional lens shifts the focus from risk mitigation to collective governance. It emphasizes negotiation, mutual recognition, and shared authority. In this view, SLO is not something a company can secure on its own: it must be co-created with communities through inclusive processes.

The paper introduces a novel framework for analyzing SLO that integrates institutional and governance perspectives: Do the governance strategies align with the institutional context?

This work is particularly relevant for regions rich in critical raw materials, such as parts of Latin America, where exclusion from decision-making has often led to local opposition. To illustrate their framework, the authors revisit a lithium mining project in Chile’s Atacama Desert – where years of tension gave way to a hard-won agreement between the company and indigenous communities.

Read the paper here