Oil’s Rural Reach: Social Licence in Saskatchewan’s Oil-Producing Communities

Background This article investigates the unusually robust social licence that the oil industry enjoys in Saskatchewan, where rural oil-producing communities exhibit what Thomson and Boutilier characterize as “psychological identification” with industry. Analysis The authors explore what this psychological identification looks like on the ground by examining the corporate social responsibility practices of the oil industry. They probe the beliefs and perceptions of variously positioned individuals living in oil-producing communities through 25 interviews. Conclusion and implications The research findings point to the need to understand social licence as much more than only the practice of garnering consent for local operations. Rather, the intense identification with industry in the communities studied clearly favoured the reproduction of industry discourses for understanding a wide array of energy issues.