Social Licence Comes to Greenland’s Mining Sector: Will Communities be Empowered?
The social licence to operate is a concept that has been applied to the mining sector internationally for the past two decades. In 2017, it was raised by a number of actors as a way to reduce controversy over mining projects in Greenland. In this paper, we analyse why the concept of social licence a...
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The Arctic Institute of North America
2022
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic74038 https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/download/74038/55357 |
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crarcticinstna:10.14430/arctic74038 2024-06-09T07:42:14+00:00 Social Licence Comes to Greenland’s Mining Sector: Will Communities be Empowered? Bowles, Paul MacPhail, Fiona 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic74038 https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/download/74038/55357 unknown The Arctic Institute of North America http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ARCTIC volume 74, issue 4, page 496-508 ISSN 1923-1245 0004-0843 journal-article 2022 crarcticinstna https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic74038 2024-05-14T12:53:43Z The social licence to operate is a concept that has been applied to the mining sector internationally for the past two decades. In 2017, it was raised by a number of actors as a way to reduce controversy over mining projects in Greenland. In this paper, we analyse why the concept of social licence appeared, and the legitimacy problems that it was intended to resolve despite numerous changes to Greenland’s mining approval processes. We argue that the concept was introduced primarily as a way of seeking to enhance the voices and agency of local communities in resource governance. We further ask whether, on the basis of Canadian experience where social licence has been used for much longer in natural resource governance discourse, introducing the concept into Greenland will likely lead to an empowerment of communities. We argue that the Canadian experience in this regard shows that the outcome is complex, that community empowerment can take different forms or may not occur at all. Such complexity is also likely in Greenland. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Greenland Arctic Institute of North America Greenland ARCTIC 74 4 496 508 |
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Arctic Institute of North America |
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crarcticinstna |
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description |
The social licence to operate is a concept that has been applied to the mining sector internationally for the past two decades. In 2017, it was raised by a number of actors as a way to reduce controversy over mining projects in Greenland. In this paper, we analyse why the concept of social licence appeared, and the legitimacy problems that it was intended to resolve despite numerous changes to Greenland’s mining approval processes. We argue that the concept was introduced primarily as a way of seeking to enhance the voices and agency of local communities in resource governance. We further ask whether, on the basis of Canadian experience where social licence has been used for much longer in natural resource governance discourse, introducing the concept into Greenland will likely lead to an empowerment of communities. We argue that the Canadian experience in this regard shows that the outcome is complex, that community empowerment can take different forms or may not occur at all. Such complexity is also likely in Greenland. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bowles, Paul MacPhail, Fiona |
spellingShingle |
Bowles, Paul MacPhail, Fiona Social Licence Comes to Greenland’s Mining Sector: Will Communities be Empowered? |
author_facet |
Bowles, Paul MacPhail, Fiona |
author_sort |
Bowles, Paul |
title |
Social Licence Comes to Greenland’s Mining Sector: Will Communities be Empowered? |
title_short |
Social Licence Comes to Greenland’s Mining Sector: Will Communities be Empowered? |
title_full |
Social Licence Comes to Greenland’s Mining Sector: Will Communities be Empowered? |
title_fullStr |
Social Licence Comes to Greenland’s Mining Sector: Will Communities be Empowered? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Social Licence Comes to Greenland’s Mining Sector: Will Communities be Empowered? |
title_sort |
social licence comes to greenland’s mining sector: will communities be empowered? |
publisher |
The Arctic Institute of North America |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic74038 https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/download/74038/55357 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Greenland |
genre_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
op_source |
ARCTIC volume 74, issue 4, page 496-508 ISSN 1923-1245 0004-0843 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic74038 |
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ARCTIC |
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74 |
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4 |
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496 |
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508 |
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1801371125777694720 |