Divide to conquer. A transnational analysis of extractive industries'performative governance tactics to gain social license

Natural resource extraction often takes place in locations where communities are not financially well-off and where historically marginalized groups reside. This paper contributes to the policy debate by revealing how corporate social licence tactics enable a model of corporate-community manipulation which is similar across different geographical contexts. Original data gathered between 2016 and 2024 is drawn from observation and more than 100 interviews and member checking workshops with residents of Appalachia, USA affected by hydraulic fracturing and, of southern Ecuador threatened by a gold mining concession. Data demonstrates the diffusion of a globalized repertoire of performative governance across very different political and economic geographies. The parallelism between these two different contexts suggests that extractive social licence consists in a globalized and standardized form of soft power enacted through performative governance thanks to complacent governments and extractive companies using economic tactics and intimidation to divide communities and force extractive projects onto them. In such context, regulatory implications and accountability mechanisms appear to be rather empty. On the reverse, if social licence would undergo a process of juridification would companies be forced to follow a specific legal path, possibly including external monitoring, in such a way that the pressures experienced by residents presented in this article would not take place. • The paper adds evidence to the critiques of the concept of social license. • Original data consists of more than 100 interviews and focus groups. • It is a transnational study of fracking in Appalachia, USA and gold mining in southern Ecuador. • The industry provides financial incentives, invests in local infrastructures and intimidates. • Companies ignite neighborly tensions, divide communities and thus receive support.