A graphical theory of social license: applications to climate action, renewable energy and sustainable food production

Scott A. Condie () and Corrine M. Condie
Additional contact information
Scott A. Condie: GPO Box 1538
Corrine M. Condie: GPO Box 1538

Palgrave Communications, 2025, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Concepts such as community attitudes, social influence, social acceptability, social license, and conflict are core elements of macro-sociological theory, as well as being central to contemporary debates across a wide range of contentious environmental issues. While there are clear conceptual linkages, the absence of quantitative definitions and theory has hindered the integration of these concepts and allowed them to be used selectively to advance particular viewpoints. Here we unify these concepts within a novel social license graph that uses attitudinal data to objectively map community interest and the social acceptability of any operation or sector. This approach allows rigorous quantitative assessment of the social performance of management and policy over time. Three contentious environmental issues (climate action, renewable energy, and sustainable food production) have been used to demonstrate how the social license graph can track social acceptability over time and help evaluate management options.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-025-04741-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-04741-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-04741-y

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().