The Normativity of Social Licence

Abstract

The social licence literature contains two quite different accounts of the concept. Sometimes social licence is presented as an essentially empirical matter; sometimes it is portrayed as having normative significance. Both advocates and critics assume that the normative version is easy to generate from the empirical version but the author argues that it is difficult to account for the normativity of social licence. It is commonly claimed that social licence is a ‘metaphor’ or ‘analogy’ drawing on familiar understandings of institutional licences, and standard accounts purport to ‘build in’ normativity. Neither strategy establishes the normativity of social licence. If that is correct, we have reason to be sceptical about the normative significant of claims about the possession of empirical social licence. The approval or acceptance by affected communities may be one factor to be taken into account in such analysis, but it will not itself settle whether a practice ought to be approved or accepted or licenced.

Citation

Dare, T. (2023), "The Normativity of Social Licence", Breakey, H. (Ed.) Social Licence and Ethical Practice (Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Vol. 27), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 11-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-209620230000027002