Questioning the origin of the expression ‘social licence to operate’: challenging current beliefs

This paper dispels a myth about the origin of the metaphor, ‘social licence to operate’ (UK spelling) or ‘social license to operate’ (US spelling). ‘Social licence’ (for short) is an important concept in the fields of social practice, social performance, social impact assessment, impact assessment generally, and related areas. Social licence refers to whether a project, company or organisation of any kind has approval from affected people, local communities, and other societal stakeholders. Words like social acceptance, social legitimacy, credibility and trust are typically used to describe social licence. Despite widespread belief that either Jim Cooney (early 1997) or Henson Moore (late 1996) invented the concept, I present conclusive evidence the expression pre-dated them. Although the precise origin remains elusive, I argue that what is understood by ‘Social licence’ is similar to the meaning of ‘licence to operate’ that was featured in the 1993–1995 ‘Tomorrow’s Company Inquiry’ of the Royal Society of Arts. The concept was also present in discussions around implementing the Responsible Care Initiative in the North American chemical industry. Social licence is an important concept in social impact assessment and project management because the perceived legitimacy of a project affects how people experience social impacts.