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'That's Witchcraft': Community entrepreneuring as a process of navigating intra-community tensions through spiritual practices
Wageningen University, Netherlands.
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands.
Montpellier Business School, France;Research in Management, France.
Linnaeus University, School of Business and Economics, Department of Organisation and Entrepreneurship. Babson College, USA.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5863-9988
2022 (English)In: Organization Studies, ISSN 0170-8406, E-ISSN 1741-3044, Vol. 43, no 2, p. 179-201Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This paper theorizes the spiritual processes of community entrepreneuring as navigating tensions that arise when community-based enterprises (CBEs) emerge within communities and generate socio-economic inequality. Grounded on an ethnographic study of a dairy CBE in rural Malawi, findings reveal that intra-community tensions revolve around the occurrence of 'bad events' - mysterious tragedies that, among their multiple meanings, are also framed as witchcraft. Community members prepare for, frame, cope and build collective sustenance from 'bad events' by intertwining witchcraft and mundane socio-material practices. Together, these practices reflect the mystery and the ambiguity that surround 'bad events' and prevent intra-community tensions from overtly erupting. Through witchcraft, intra-community tensions are channelled, amplified and tamed cyclically as this process first destabilizes community social order and then restabilizes it after partial compensation for socio-economic inequality. Generalizing beyond witchcraft, this spiritual view of community entrepreneuring enriches our understanding of entrepreneuring - meant as organization-creation process in an already organized world - in the context of communities. Furthermore, it sheds light on the dynamics of socio-economic inequality surrounding CBEs, and on how spirituality helps community members to cope with inequality and its effects.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2022. Vol. 43, no 2, p. 179-201
Keywords [en]
Africa, community-based enterprises, entrepreneuring, rural communities, spirituality
National Category
Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Research subject
Economy, Ledarskap, entreprenörskap och organisation
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-106706DOI: 10.1177/01708406211031730ISI: 000679160200001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85111527185Local ID: 2021OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-106706DiVA, id: diva2:1590396
Available from: 2021-09-02 Created: 2021-09-02 Last updated: 2023-04-20Bibliographically approved

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Gartner, William B.

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