'That's Witchcraft': Community entrepreneuring as a process of navigating intra-community tensions through spiritual practices

'That's Witchcraft' : Community entrepreneuring as a process of navigating intra-community tensions through spiritual practices

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.

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP Annan samhällsvetenskap Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap hsv//swe
SOCIAL SCIENCES Other Social Sciences Social Sciences Interdisciplinary hsv//eng
Africa
community-based enterprises
entrepreneuring
rural communities
spirituality
Ledarskap, entreprenörskap och organisation
Ledarskap, entreprenörskap och organisation

Lubberink, RobAmsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands (författare)
Dentoni, DomenicoMontpellier Business School, France;Research in Management, France (författare)
Gartner, William B.Linnéuniversitetet,Institutionen för organisation och entreprenörskap (OE),Babson College, USA(Swepub:lnu)wigaaa (författare)
Wageningen University, NetherlandsAmsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands (creator_code:org_t)

Ingår i:Organization Studies: Sage Publications43:2, s. 179-2010170-84061741-3044

Av författaren/redakt...: Cucchi, Carlo; Lubberink, Rob; Dentoni, Domenic ...; Gartner, William ...

Om ämnet

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP: SAMHÄLLSVETENSKA ...; och Annan samhällsve ...; och Tvärvetenskaplig ...

Kungliga biblioteket hanterar dina personuppgifter i enlighet med EU:s dataskyddsförordning (2018), GDPR. Läs mer om hur det funkar här.
Så här hanterar KB dina uppgifter vid användning av denna tjänst.