Affective–political endurance and sumud : entrepreneurship under domination in Palestine

Purpose This study examines how entrepreneurs sustain economic activity under conditions of protracted political domination, where ordinary economic life is systematically constrained and futures are radically uncertain. Focusing on Palestine, the paper reconceptualises entrepreneurship beyond opportunity recognition, resilience and recovery-based frameworks. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on 26 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Palestinian entrepreneurs operating in Gaza and the West Bank, the study adopts an abductive qualitative approach. Findings The findings show that entrepreneurship under protracted domination takes the form of affective–political endurance – sustained practices of remaining, operating and caring that are morally organised through cultural resources and oriented towards continuity, presence and dignity. Political domination generates shared affective atmospheres, which are morally reworked through sumud (steadfastness) and related cultural and religious practices. Entrepreneurial agency emerges as ethical endurance rather than autonomous initiative, with gender shaping exposure to domination and the distribution of affective and moral labour. Originality/value This study introduces affective–political endurance as a necessary concept for explaining how entrepreneurship is sustained under conditions of protracted domination. It advances affective political contextualisation as an integrative framework that reconceptualises context as a constitutive power–affect order, theorises affect as collective and infrastructural rather than individual and reframes entrepreneurship under domination as endurance rather than resilience or recovery.