The Social License: The Story of the San Cristobal Mine

This unique book combines a colourful history of Bolivian politics with some of the most advanced quantitative techniques yet developed for socio-political risk analysis. This is the story of how a foreign-owned private sector mining company (Minera San Cristobal - MSC) earned, lost, and regained its social licence to operate.

Robert G. Boutilier and Ian Thomson, leading experts in stakeholder management theory and practice, transform the concept of the SLO from a metaphor to a management tool. The book traces the development of new concepts and measures in the field of stakeholder engagement while following the narrative of a community struggling with a fundamental change in its identity from a declining, malnourished llama-herding village to one of the richest towns in Bolivia.

This remarkable story will inspire practitioners in the field of stakeholder management; it will provide an invaluable roadmap for professionals working on land re-use projects in the energy, mining, and conservation sectors; it will make stakeholder relations concepts and techniques accessible to students through an engaging and in-depth case study; and it will open your eyes to one of the most fascinating accounts of how two different cultures collided and then came together to address different but aligned goals.

Robert G. Boutilier is a strategy consultant, social researcher, and Associate of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Ian Thomson is a practising social consultant, researcher and communicator with more than 40 years of experience in the natural resource industries, most recently as principal of Shinglespit Consultants Inc., Canada.