Trust

Abstract

Those who have written about the social license to operate identify trust as a foundational concept.² As the previous chapter has discussed, legitimacy as a concept relates to both the organization and the activity. A sufficient level of both is required for social license. Now, we turn our attention to trust—very much a relationship between the organization and the stakeholders and rights-holders concerned. The next chapter will look at consent, a concept that ties back the opinion of rights-holders to the activity in question. Whilst trust is very much a two-directional relationship, consent is not. It comes from the affected social groups in relation to the specific proposed activity.

“If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.”

Abraham Lincoln (1854)¹