O Trilema da Legitimidade: comunicação estratégica, crise de confiança e a manutenção da Licença Social para Operar na Mineração em Grande Escala na América Latina
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18623/rvd.v23.n1.3939Palavras-chave:
Social License to Operate, Strategic Communication, Large-Scale Mining, Crisis of Legitimacy, Community Trust, ESG, Stakeholder TheoryResumo
Este estudo aborda o papel crucial da comunicação institucional estratégica na obtenção e, fundamentalmente, na manutenção de longo prazo da Licença Social para Operar (LSO) dentro da indústria de mineração em grande escala na América Latina.
A LSO, definida como o consentimento contínuo e evolutivo das partes interessadas (stakeholders), é um imperativo que transcende o cumprimento regulatório. O estudo emprega um design qualitativo de estudo de casos múltiplos e comparativo, analisando a estratégia de comunicação de um projeto em fase inicial de construção de confiança (Los Azules, Argentina) e contrastando-a com o colapso da legitimidade em uma operação madura que culminou em uma crise social e legal (Cobre Panamá, Panamá). A evidência é complementada por uma avaliação comparativa (benchmarking) de práticas de líderes do setor (BHP, Rio Tinto).
Os resultados demonstram que, embora a transparência proativa gere um capital inicial de confiança, esse capital é volátil. A manutenção da LSO é perdida devido a uma Lacuna entre a Retórica e a Realidade (Rhetoric-Reality Gap), onde a comunicação de indicadores positivos Ambientais, Sociais e de Governança (ASG ou ESG) se desalinhada com a percepção local do impacto real, transformando o discurso em uma estratégia monológica percebida como insincera.
O conceito do Trilema da Legitimidade é introduzido para enquadrar a tensão entre as legitimidades legal, econômica e sociopolítica. O estudo conclui que a comunicação deve migrar da intenção para o resultado verificável para garantir uma legitimidade sustentável, fornecendo implicações teóricas para a Teoria dos Stakeholders e implicações práticas para a gestão de riscos em contextos latino-americanos voláteis.
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