Islam, Marketing and Consumption by Jafari, Aliakbar; Sandikci, Özlem;

Short description:

This book seeks to reflect various unheard and emerging critical voices from within the Muslim world, providing critical insights on how, if and why Islam matters to marketing theory and practice.

This insightful collection will be of interest to those interested in marketing, consumer behaviour, Islamic studies, cultural studies and sociology.

Long description:

In recent years, a critically oriented sub-stream of research on Muslim consumers and businesses has begun to emerge. This scholarship, located both within and outside the marketing field, adopts a socio-culturally situated approach to Islam and investigates the complex and multifaceted intersections between Islam and markets.

This book seeks to reflect various unheard and emerging critical voices from within the Muslim world, and provide a series of critical insights on how, if and why Islam matters to marketing theory and practice. It questions the existing assumptions and polarising discussions which underpin the portrayal of Islam as the ‘other’ of Modernity, while acknowledging that Muslims themselves are partially responsible for creating stereotyped representations of Islam and ‘the Muslim’.

This wide-ranging and insightful collection will advance emerging critical perspectives, and provide new insights that will influence the generation and application of knowledge in the context of Muslim societies. It will open up fresh conversations for scholars in marketing as well as the broader humanities and social sciences.

'Islam <-> Marketing and Islam <-> Consumption are both two-way avenues of influence, as this volume attests. Moreover, these traffic patterns are complicated by the super highway, Marketing <-> Consumption, that threatens to bypass Islam entirely. These thoughtful and critical essays seek a more enlightened flow of ideas, values, ethics, and practices. Although no masterplan emerges, these analyses plot possible routes and hazards.' - Russell Belk, Professor, York University, Canada

'This is a unique and timely volume, edited and authored by the leading thinkers and scholars in the field. The work has been informed by a deep knowledge of Islam and its issues as well as the events and emergent market phenomenon in a wide range of Muslim geographies. What differentiates this work from others is, firstly, the critical and reflexive perspective through which the issues are being deliberated, and secondly the non-essentialist, non-Orientalist lens the authors adopt.' - Güliz Ger, Professor, Bilkent University, Turkey

'Jafari and Sandicki are leading the way in thinking the new complexities of our globalizing societies by showing how religion is at the very core of social, cultural, political and economic changes. This book is also a wake up call for those who study religion - that they realize how consumption, marketing and markets should be central concerns in their analyses.' - François Gauthier, Professor, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Islam in Consumption, Marketing and Markets Part I: Beyond the Brand ‘Islamic’ 1. What Is in a Name That We Call ‘Islam’? A critical inquiry into the semiotic construction of super-brand Ummah 2. Marketing Islam in a "Double Minority" Setting: The case of Singapore 3. Poverty and Socioeconomic Injustice in Muslim Geographies Part II: Islam and the Islamic Representations in the Fashionscape 4. The Commercial Limits of the Ummah? National and regional taste distinctions in the modest fashion market 5. Images of Desire: Creating virtue and value in an Indonesian Islamic lifestyle magazine 6. What Makes a Commodity Islamic? The case of veiling fashion in Turkey Part III: Towards a Reflexive Account of Theorization 7. An Islamic Model of Marketing Ethics: A critical analysis from contemporary perspectives 8. Islam, the Free Market and Economy 9. Authenticity, Religious Identity and Consumption: A reflexive (auto)ethnographic account