Social license to operate: an institutional critique and research framework

The concept of Social License to Operate (SLO) addresses the need for mutual acceptance among governments, civil society, and private actors of what is considered as legitimate resource development. We identify two key shortcomings in current understandings of SLO: a dominant managerial lens that fails to account for the collective and institutional dimensions of an SLO, and the flawed belief that the mere absence of conflict signifies the presence of a social license. To address these gaps, we conceptualize SLO as a social institution, introduce a heuristic framework for empirical analysis, and explore the role of governance in fostering and sustaining an SLO. A reconstruction of the arduous evolution of a mining project in Chile illustrates how this framework helps assess institutional alignment, trace the governance process, and understand place-specific SLO dynamics. We conclude by emphasizing how this perspective offers practical insights for achieving inclusive development in resource-dependent regions. © 2025