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Comparing reflexive and assertive approaches to social licence and social impact assessment
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Comparing reflexive and assertive approaches to social licence and social impact assessment

Richard Parsons and Hanabeth Luke
The Extractive Industries and Society, Vol.8(2), pp.1-8
06/2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2020.06.022
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Comparing reflexive and assertive approachesView
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Abstract

Community engagement Coal mining Rocky Hill Coal seam gas Procedural fairness
The idea of embedding social licence in mining practices is attractive because it suggests a formalisation, institutionalisation, or integration of social concerns with more well-established biophysical, environmental, and economic concerns, and thereby a sensitivity to power relations. Social impact assessment can be seen as a practical framework for operationalising this social licence through reflexive social science, but it suffers when proponents misuse social science to ‘assert’ community approval. Our two case studies of proposed coal and coal-seam-gas mining in New South Wales, Australia, illustrate some differences between ‘reflexive’ and ‘assertive’ approaches to SIA and social licence. Assertive approaches tend to use data selectively and/or misleadingly in an effort to ‘prove’ high community approval, and make unsubstantiated truth claims. Reflexive approaches are methodologically rigorous, procedurally fair, transparent, inclusive, and impartial. Reflexive approaches are more likely to prevail when institutional arrangements include professional independence, leading-practice guidance, and a supportive regulatory environment.

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