IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v162y2020i3d10.1007_s10551-018-4006-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Temporal Spaces of Egalitarianism: The Ethical Negation of Economic Inequality in an Ephemeral Religious Organization

Author

Listed:
  • Ateeq A. Rauf

    (Information Tecnology University)

  • Ajnesh Prasad

    (Royal Roads University
    Tecnologico de Monterrey)

Abstract

In this article, we illuminate how a consumption practice in an ephemeral religious organization subverts systems of economic inequality that otherwise prevail in, and structure, society. Drawing on a rich ethnographic study in Pakistan, we show how the practice of food consumption in the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ)—an Islamic organization originating in South Asia that is practiced intermittently by its followers—represents temporal spaces of egalitarianism. Within these temporal spaces, entrenched economic hierarchies that are salient in organizing Pakistani society are challenged. We found that while the fundamental principles of the Tablighi Jamaat advocate for subversion of the economic hierarchies that propagate myriad inequalities by demarcating local Muslims into spheres of different social and economic classes, it is in the practice of food consumption when ethical transgression from these hierarchies are rendered most intelligible. Finally, we consider the implications of this study to the emerging field of Islamic business ethics.

Suggested Citation

  • Ateeq A. Rauf & Ajnesh Prasad, 2020. "Temporal Spaces of Egalitarianism: The Ethical Negation of Economic Inequality in an Ephemeral Religious Organization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 699-718, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:162:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-018-4006-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-4006-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-018-4006-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-018-4006-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. José De Gregorio & Jong–Wha Lee, 2002. "Education and Income Inequality: New Evidence From Cross‐Country Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(3), pages 395-416, September.
    2. Spiggle, Susan, 1994. "Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(3), pages 491-503, December.
    3. Wilkinson, Richard G & Pickett, Kate E., 2006. "Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1768-1784, April.
    4. Gunnar L.H. Svendsen & Gert T. Svendsen, 2016. "Trust, Social Capital and the Scandinavian Welfare State," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13252.
    5. Brent D. Beal & Marina Astakhova, 2017. "Management and Income Inequality: A Review and Conceptual Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 1-23, April.
    6. van Doorslaer, Eddy & Wagstaff, Adam & Bleichrodt, Han & Calonge, Samuel & Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Gerfin, Michael & Geurts, Jose & Gross, Lorna & Hakkinen, Unto & Leu, Robert E., 1997. "Income-related inequalities in health: some international comparisons," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 93-112, February.
    7. Sabine Dreher, 2015. "Islamic Capitalism? The Turkish Hizmet Business Community Network in a Global Economy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 129(4), pages 823-832, July.
    8. Craig J. Thompson & Tuba Üstüner, 2015. "Women Skating on the Edge: Marketplace Performances as Ideological Edgework," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 42(2), pages 235-265.
    9. Prasad, Ajnesh, 2018. "When is economic inequality justified?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 855-862.
    10. Pradhan, Menno & Sahn, David E. & Younger, Stephen D., 2003. "Decomposing world health inequality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 271-293, March.
    11. Fahri Karakas & Emine Sarigollu & Mustafa Kavas, 2015. "Discourses of Collective Spirituality and Turkish Islamic Ethics: An Inquiry into Transcendence, Connectedness, and Virtuousness in Anatolian Tigers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 129(4), pages 811-822, July.
    12. Mackenbach, Johan P., 2012. "The persistence of health inequalities in modern welfare states: The explanation of a paradox," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(4), pages 761-769.
    13. Abbas Ali & Abdulrahman Al-Aali & Abdullah Al-Owaihan, 2013. "Islamic Perspectives on Profit Maximization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 467-475, October.
    14. Thorbecke, Erik & Charumilind, Chutatong, 2002. "Economic Inequality and Its Socioeconomic Impact," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(9), pages 1477-1495, September.
    15. Thompson, Craig J & Locander, William B & Pollio, Howard R, 1989. "Putting Consumer Experience Back into Consumer Research: The Philosophy and Method of Existential-Phenomenology," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(2), pages 133-146, September.
    16. Ram Manohar Vikas & Rohit Varman & Russell W. Belk, 2015. "Status, Caste, and Market in a Changing Indian Village," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 42(3), pages 472-498.
    17. Santiago Levy & Norbert Schady, 2013. "Latin America's Social Policy Challenge: Education, Social Insurance, Redistribution," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(2), pages 193-218, Spring.
    18. Özlem Sandikci & Güliz Ger, 2010. "Veiling in Style: How Does a Stigmatized Practice Become Fashionable?," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(1), pages 15-36, June.
    19. Abdul Abdullah & Hristos Doucouliagos & Elizabeth Manning, 2015. "Does Education Reduce Income Inequality? A Meta-Regression Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 301-316, April.
    20. Holt, Douglas B, 1998. "Does Cultural Capital Structure American Consumption?," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 25(1), pages 1-25, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bruton, Garry & Sutter, Christopher & Lenz, Anna-Katharina, 2021. "Economic inequality – Is entrepreneurship the cause or the solution? A review and research agenda for emerging economies," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(3).
    2. Ateeq Abdul Rauf, 2021. "New Moralities for New Media? Assessing the Role of Social Media in Acts of Terror and Providing Points of Deliberation for Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(2), pages 229-251, May.
    3. Fahreen Alamgir & Hari Bapuji & Raza Mir, 2022. "Challenges and Insights from South Asia for Imagining Ethical Organizations: Introduction to the Special Issue," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(4), pages 717-728, May.
    4. Arun Kumar, 2022. "Philanthropy and the Making of a New Moral Order: A History of Developing Community," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(4), pages 729-741, May.
    5. Arun Kumar & Hari Bapuji & Raza Mir, 2022. "“Educate, Agitate, Organize”: Inequality and Ethics in the Writings of Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 1-14, June.
    6. Masoud Shadnam & Andrey Bykov & Ajnesh Prasad, 2021. "Opening Constructive Dialogues Between Business Ethics Research and the Sociology of Morality: Introduction to the Thematic Symposium," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(2), pages 201-211, May.
    7. Kamer-Ainur AIVAZ & Iustin Cornel PETRE, 2024. "Systematic Investigation Of The Influence Of Religion On Business Management: A Bibliometric Approach," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 19(2), pages 5-22, August.
    8. Kumar, Satish & Sahoo, Saumyaranjan & Lim, Weng Marc & Dana, Léo-Paul, 2022. "Religion as a social shaping force in entrepreneurship and business: Insights from a technology-empowered systematic literature review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    9. Lu, Liping & Wu, Yiping, 2020. "Does religion enhance firm performance? Evidence from private firms in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zeynep Arsel & Darren DahlEditor & Eileen FischerEditor & Gita JoharEditor & Vicki MorwitzEditor, 2017. "Asking Questions with Reflexive Focus: A Tutorial on Designing and Conducting Interviews," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(4), pages 939-948.
    2. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    3. Heshmati, Almas, 2004. "Inequalities and Their Measurement," IZA Discussion Papers 1219, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Miguel Niño‐Zarazúa, 2019. "Welfare and Redistributive Effects of Social Assistance in the Global South," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 45(S1), pages 3-22, December.
    5. Clément Dubreuil & Delphine Dion & Stéphane Borraz, 2023. "For the Love of the Game: Moral Ambivalence and Justification Work in Consuming Violence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 675-694, September.
    6. Akon E. Ekpo & Benét DeBerry-Spence & Geraldine Rosa Henderson & Joseph Cherian, 2018. "Narratives of technology consumption in the face of marketplace discrimination," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 451-463, December.
    7. Mariam Beruchashvili & Risto Moisio, 2013. "Is Planning an Aid or an Obstacle? Examining the Role of Consumers' Lay Theories in Weight Loss," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 404-431, November.
    8. Sophie Duncan‐Shepherd & Kathy Hamilton, 2022. "“Generally, I live a lie”: Transgender consumer experiences and responses to symbolic violence," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 1597-1616, December.
    9. Adham Sayed, 2020. "Income Inequality and Public Debt: What Can Be Learned from the Lebanese Indebtedness?," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 10(4), pages 83-106, December.
    10. Giana M. Eckhardt & Susan Dobscha, 2019. "The Consumer Experience of Responsibilization: The Case of Panera Cares," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 651-663, October.
    11. repec:oup:jecgeo:v:50:y:2023:i:2:p:282-302. is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Tomoki Fujii, 2013. "Geographic decomposition of inequality in health and wealth: evidence from Cambodia," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(3), pages 373-392, September.
    13. Caruso Raul & Antonella Biscione, 2022. "Militarization and Income Inequality in European Countries (2000–2017)," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 28(3), pages 267-285, September.
    14. Quinonez, Pablo, 2022. "Social spending and income inequality in Latin America. A panel data approach," MPRA Paper 113538, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Travis Tae Oh & Michel Tuan Pham, 2022. "A Liberating-Engagement Theory of Consumer Fun [Pleasure Principles: A Review of Research on Hedonic Consumption]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(1), pages 46-73.
    16. Cinzia Di Novi & Anna Marenzi & Dino Rizzi, 2018. "Do healthcare tax credits help poor-health individuals on low incomes?," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(2), pages 293-307, March.
    17. Ibarra-Cantu, Cecilia & Cheetham, Dr Fiona, 2021. "Consumer multiculturation in multicultural marketplaces: Mexican immigrants’ responses to the global consumer culture construction of Tex-Mex as Mexican food," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 70-77.
    18. Jonas Holmqvist & Luca Visconti & Christian Grönroos & Blandine Guais & Aurélie Kessous, 2020. "Understanding the value process: Value creation in a luxury service context," Post-Print hal-03511392, HAL.
    19. Asma Boussetta, 2022. "Microfinance, Poverty and Education," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 64(1), pages 86-108, March.
    20. Thompson, Kristina & Ophem, Johan van & Wagemakers, Annemarie, 2019. "Studying the impact of the Eurozone’s Great Recession on health: Methodological choices and challenges," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 162-184.
    21. Daza, Sebastian & palloni, alberto, 2018. "Income Mobility, Income Inequality and Mortality in the U.S," SocArXiv gdz2a, Center for Open Science.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:162:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-018-4006-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.