Governance, Social Acceptability, and Organizational Learning in Public Infrastructure Projects

While public infrastructure projects face frequent challenges related to social acceptability, the relationship between these projects’ governance and social acceptability has been overlooked. Yet, governance plays a crucial role in generating practices and policies that facilitate the development of social acceptability. This article elaborates on a conceptual framework of the processual governance dynamics of public infrastructure projects, which bridges project governance and social acceptability literatures in the context of public infrastructure projects. An organizational learning framework is introduced, which portrays strategies that encourage stakeholder engagement and ensure alignment with sustainable development principles. Building on this, the article offers two contributions to the literature. First, it theoretically grounds the interrelations among governance, social acceptability, and organizational learning. Second, it develops a practical analytical tool that can serve as a roadmap for organizations that aim to improve their socially responsible project management practices.