Social Conflict Resolution in the Extractive Industry

Case studies of Licenses to Operate

Cesar Saenz
Emerald
Emerald

This book can be opened with

Glassboxx eBooks and audiobooks can be opened on phones, tablets, iOS and Android devices

Hardback
9781805920595
16 March 2026
£45.00
eBook (PDF)
9781805920588
02 February 2026
£45.00
eBook (ePub)
9781805920601
02 February 2026
£45.00

Note on our eBooks and Audiobooks: you can read our eBooks (ePUB or PDF) and listen to audiobooks on the free Emerald Books app on iOS, Android, and desktop. Or read and listen on Emerald's online reader (ePUB eBooks and audiobooks only). To purchase a digital book you will need to create an account if you don’t already have one. After purchasing you will receive instructions on how to get started.

  • Description
  • Contents
  • About

The extractive industry is crucial in this energy transformation age, where the world is concerned about emissions reduction and more sustainable businesses. The extractive industry has two objectives: meeting the rising demand and extracting natural resources in a sustainable way. However, the industry usually deals with community rejection and social conflicts wherever they are, and this dire situation is a barrier for new extractive projects worldwide. Understanding why social conflicts are generated and transformed into shared-value projects is crucial to designing extractive projects that consider the community's concerns and integrate these issues into the final project. In addition, getting and keeping the social license to operate (SLO) is important in the extractive industry, so companies must monitor the SLO during the operation's life cycle to prevent social conflict. That is why it is important to have a way to measure the SLO. This book presents a framework that allows companies to analyze social conflicts and propose better projects to obtain the social license to operate. It also presents a methodology for calculating the SLO that shows how the company-community relationship is going.

Chapter 1. Socio-Environmental Conflicts

  • Chapter 2. The Ark of Socio-Environmental Conflicts
  • Chapter 3. Calculating the Level of Social License to Operate
  • Chapter 4. Transforming Social Conflicts
  • Chapter 5. Socio-Environmental Conflicts in the Oil and Gas Sector
  • Chapter 6. Socio-Environmental Conflicts in the Energy Sector
  • Chapter 7. Socio-Environmental Mining Conflicts

Cesar Saenz is a university professor and researcher on the business-community relationship to create shared value and gain the social license to operate. For more than a decade he has been researching and systematizing best practices so companies can improve their relationships with the surrounding communities.