Fragmented Voices, Unified Principles: Diversity and Just Engagement in Earning Community Acceptance for Large Projects

Abstract

Projects producing environmental or social change within a community have the potential to cause contestation. The Social Licence to Operate (SLO) and how it might be earned are examined in this paper. A new approach, the IUE Model (Identify, Understand, and Engage), is suggested to better facilitate conflict reduction and thus enhance project acceptance and long-term sustainability. While the literature often portrays communities as homogeneous, the research revealed that individuals or groups constituting the ‘community’ were remarkably diverse, even at the local level. Apart from those directly affected by the project, there were numerous “influencers” attempting to sway opinion. Identifying the various community elements is the first vital step in earning acceptance. Effective engagement necessitates understanding the diverse motivations of communities supporting or opposing the project. Support was motivated by potential benefits, either for the individual or the community. Reasons for opposition were far more nuanced, ranging from perceived personal impact to environmental and ecological objections. Engagement requires Procedural Justice (are the rules and procedures fair?), Interactional Justice (are all parties treated fairly?), Environmental/Ecological Justice (going beyond legal compliance to ensure no harm) and Distributive Justice (beyond CSR to fair benefit distribution in line with needs and capabilities). These elements are essential for sustainable interaction. Engagement is not unidirectional; it requires all parties to treat each other with respect and dignity, in line with Ubuntu’s underlying principles of cohesion and reciprocal value. The Ubuntu lens provides a decolonised basis for considering justice, offering the insight that while communities have the right to award or withdraw their acceptance, their actions may impact their rights. The paper concludes with an explication of the IUE (Identify, Understand, and Engage) Model, providing a new understanding of how acceptance is earned and offering pragmatic guidance that can be understood and adopted in practice.