This paper addresses the question why and how local communities mobilize against corporate social irresponsibility. Employing data on local community protests against a gold mine in Guji, Ethiopia, we develop a sensemaking perspective on local community mobilization. We find that community mobilization is a dual-layered process, where community members, through iterations of individual level sensemaking, collective sensemaking, and action, gradually align towards mobilization (or fail to do so). We theorize the central role emotions play in this process, outlining that enacted emotions spill over from the collective level to the individual level, thus facilitating or preventing the development of a collective sensemaking account. Our theorization contributes to the emerging understanding of why and how local communities, as important stakeholders, mobilize against CSI and extends extant work on sensemaking and emotions. Ours is also one of the few studies in the field that draw on primary data from a developing country, where most CSI takes place, yet little research is done, adding important insights in that regard.
