El trilema de la legitimidad: comunicación estratégica, crisis de confianza y el mantenimiento de la Licencia Social para Operar en la Gran Minería en América Latina
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18623/rvd.v23.n1.3939Palabras clave:
Social License to Operate, Strategic Communication, Large-Scale Mining, Crisis of Legitimacy, Community Trust, ESG, Stakeholder TheoryResumen
Este estudio aborda el papel crucial de la comunicación institucional estratégica en la obtención y, fundamentalmente, en el mantenimiento a largo plazo de la Licencia Social para Operar (LSO) dentro de la industria de la minería a gran escala en América Latina.
La LSO, definida como el consentimiento continuo y evolutivo de los stakeholders (partes interesadas), es un imperativo que trasciende el cumplimiento normativo. El estudio emplea un diseño cualitativo de estudio de casos múltiples y comparativo, analizando la estrategia de comunicación de un proyecto en fase inicial de creación de confianza (Los Azules, Argentina) y contrastándolo con el colapso de la legitimidad en una operación madura que culminó en una crisis social y legal (Cobre Panamá, Panamá). La evidencia se complementa con una evaluación comparativa (benchmarking) de las prácticas de empresas líderes del sector (BHP, Rio Tinto).
Los resultados demuestran que, si bien la transparencia proactiva genera un capital inicial de confianza, este capital es volátil. El mantenimiento de la LSO se pierde debido a una Brecha entre la Retórica y la Realidad (Rhetoric-Reality Gap), donde la comunicación de indicadores positivos Ambientales, Sociales y de Gobernanza (ASG o ESG) se desalinea con la percepción local del impacto real, transformando el discurso en una estrategia monológica percibida como poco sincera.
Se introduce el concepto del Trilema de la Legitimidad para enmarcar la tensión entre las legitimidades legal, económica y sociopolítica. El estudio concluye que la comunicación debe migrar de la intención al resultado verificable para garantizar una legitimidad sostenible, aportando implicaciones teóricas para la Teoría de los Stakeholders e implicaciones prácticas para la gestión de riesgos en contextos latinoamericanos volátiles.
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