Social Licence, Gender and Mining: Moral Conviction and Perceived Economic Importance

Citation:

Measham, Thomas G., and Airong Zhang. 2019. "Social Licence, Gender and Mining: Moral Conviction and Perceived Economic Importance." Resources Policy 61: 363-8. 

Authors: Thomas G. Measham, Airong Zhang

Abstract:

Gender has been recognised as an important dimension when it comes to how the public is affected by, and responds to, the mining sector. This paper investigates the way that gender differences play out in relation to social licence and extractive industries. We seek to advance understanding of social licence in extractive industries by building on early work on the link between gender and social licence in other contexts. We address this objective through testing how women and men respond to the information presented to them in the initial notification for a hypothetical mine from a fictitious mining company (NMC Mining). The letter was informed by previous research on the pre-conditions of social licence including information about company commitments to community engagement, compliance with environmental legislation and consideration of residents' views regarding the proposed development. The results show different patterns for female and male participants in terms of perceived procedural fairness and trust in the mining company, as well as behavioural intentions in terms of complaining to others about the project and seeking to work with the mining company to make the proposed project a success. More importantly, the gender differences in attitudes toward the hypothetical mining company were mediated through differences between women and men regarding perceived personal benefits from the mining industry, the importance of mining for the economy, and overall moral conviction against the mining sector in general. The paper concludes that women and men do perceive the value of mining differently and that this translates into different behavioural intentions, differences in trust and perceived procedural fairness. 

Keywords: social licence to operate, trust, Gender, mining, community engagement, social acceptance

Topics: Economies, Environment, Extractive Industries, Gender

Year: 2019