‘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 a dairy CBE in rural Malawi, findings reveal intra-community revolve around occurrence ‘bad events’ – mysterious tragedies that, among their multiple meanings, are also framed witchcraft. Community members prepare for, frame, cope build collective sustenance from by intertwining witchcraft mundane socio-material practices. Together, these practices reflect mystery ambiguity surround prevent overtly erupting. Through witchcraft, channelled, amplified tamed cyclically this process first destabilizes social order then restabilizes it after partial compensation for Generalizing beyond view enriches our understanding meant organization-creation already organized world context communities. Furthermore, sheds light dynamics inequality surrounding CBEs, how spirituality helps to with its effects.