Kirjahaku

Never before in human history have vegetarianism and a plant-based economy been so closely associated with sustainability and the promise of tackling climate change. Nowhere is this phenomenon more visible than in India, which is home to the largest number of vegetarians globally and where vegetarianism is intrinsic to Hinduism. India is often considered a global model for vegetarianism. However, in this book, which is the outcome of eight months of fieldwork conducted among vegetarian and non-vegetarian producers, traders, regulators and consumers, I show that the reality in India is quite different, with large sections of communities being meat-eaters. In 2011, vegetarian/veg/green and nonvegetarian/ non-veg/brown labels on all packaged foods/drinks were introduced in India. Paradoxically, this grand scheme was implemented at a time when meat and non-vegetarian food production, trade and consumption were booming. The overarching argument of the book is that a systematic study of the complex and changing relationship between vegetarian and non-vegetarian understandings and practices illuminates broader transformations and challenges that relate to markets, the state, religion, politics and identities in India and beyond. The book’s empirical focus is on the changing relationship between vegetarian/ non-vegetarian as understood, practised and contested in middle-class India, while remaining attentive to the vegetarian/non-vegetarian modernities that are at the forefront of global sustainability debates. Through the application of this approach, the book provides a novel theory of human values and markets in a global middle-class perspective.

Never before in human history have vegetarianism and a plant-based economy been so closely associated with sustainability and the promise of tackling climate change. Nowhere is this phenomenon more visible than in India, which is home to the largest number of vegetarians globally and where vegetarianism is intrinsic to Hinduism. India is often considered a global model for vegetarianism. However, in this book, which is the outcome of eight months of fieldwork conducted among vegetarian and non-vegetarian producers, traders, regulators and consumers, I show that the reality in India is quite different, with large sections of communities being meat-eaters. In 2011, vegetarian/veg/green and nonvegetarian/ non-veg/brown labels on all packaged foods/drinks were introduced in India. Paradoxically, this grand scheme was implemented at a time when meat and non-vegetarian food production, trade and consumption were booming. The overarching argument of the book is that a systematic study of the complex and changing relationship between vegetarian and non-vegetarian understandings and practices illuminates broader transformations and challenges that relate to markets, the state, religion, politics and identities in India and beyond. The book’s empirical focus is on the changing relationship between vegetarian/ non-vegetarian as understood, practised and contested in middle-class India, while remaining attentive to the vegetarian/non-vegetarian modernities that are at the forefront of global sustainability debates. Through the application of this approach, the book provides a novel theory of human values and markets in a global middle-class perspective.

This book explores the role of halal production, trade, and standards based on ethnographic material from Malaysia, Singapore, and Europe. It explains how the global markets for halal comprise divergent zones in which Islam, markets, regulatory institutions, and technoscience interact and diverge.

Halal (literally, "permissible" or "lawful") production, trade, and standards have become essential to state-regulated Islam and to companies in contemporary Malaysia and Singapore, giving these two countries a special position in the rapidly expanding global market for halal products: in these nations state bodies certify halal products as well as spaces (shops, factories, and restaurants) and work processes, and so consumers can find state halal-certified products from Malaysia and Singapore in shops around the world. Building on ethnographic material from Malaysia, Singapore, and Europe, this book provides an exploration of the role of halal production, trade, and standards. Fischer explains how the global markets for halal comprise divergent zones in which Islam, markets, regulatory institutions, and technoscience interact and diverge. Focusing on the "bigger institutional picture" that frames everyday halal consumption, Fischer provides a multisited ethnography of the overlapping technologies and techniques of production, trade, and standards that together warrant a product as "halal," and thereby help to format the market. Exploring global halal in networks, training, laboratories, activism, companies, shops and restaurants, this book will be an essential resource to scholars and students of social science interested in the global interface zones between religion, standards, and technoscience.

Examining the powerful linkages between class, consumption, market relations, Islam and the state in contemporary Malaysia, this is the first book to explore how Malaysia's emerging Malay middle class is constituted through consumer practices and Islamic revivalism. By exploring consumption practices in urban Malaysia, Proper Islamic Consumption shows how diverse forms of Malay middle-class consumption (of food, clothing and cars, for example) are understood, practised and contested as a particular mode of modern Islamic practice. It illustrates ways in which the issue of 'proper Islamic consumption' for consumers, the marketplace and the state in contemporary Malaysia evokes a whole range of contradictory Islamic visions, lifestyles and debates articulating what Islam is or ought to be.

Examining the powerful linkages between class, consumption, market relations, Islam and the state in contemporary Malaysia, this is the first book to explore how Malaysia's emerging Malay middle class is constituted through consumer practices and Islamic revivalism. By exploring consumption practices in urban Malaysia, Proper Islamic Consumption shows how diverse forms of Malay middle-class consumption (of food, clothing and cars, for example) are understood, practised and contested as a particular mode of modern Islamic practice. It illustrates ways in which the issue of 'proper Islamic consumption' for consumers, the marketplace and the state in contemporary Malaysia evokes a whole range of contradictory Islamic visions, lifestyles and debates articulating what Islam is or ought to be.

The Moral Economy of Plant-Based Futures explores the complex interplay between plant-based social movements and the evolving global economy, offering a timely exploration of how these movements respond to and shape calls for reduced meat and dairy production. While meat and dairy production and consumption are increasingly being held responsible for climate change and general environmental destruction, questions of how social movements respond to and are affected by global calls for a reduction of meat and dairy products remain underexplored in relation to markets. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Telangana, India, and California, USA, the author adopts a multi-sited, sociomaterial approach to investigate how moral issues intersect with economic arrangements, revealing how movements influence markets and vice versa. It establishes an empirically-based, interdisciplinary research agenda for exploring how the plant-based moral economy is understood, practised and contested at different social levels across both the Global North and South, and advances a broader theorization of the moral economy of plant-based futures. An examination of the interaction of moral issues with economic arrangements, which combines a social movements perspective with a moral economy approach, the book offers a compelling lens for exploring how movements make markets. It will therefore appeal to scholars and students of sociology, anthropology, geography, development, movements and globalization with interests in food, the environment and the moral economy.

The Moral Economy of Plant-Based Futures explores the complex interplay between plant-based social movements and the evolving global economy, offering a timely exploration of how these movements respond to and shape calls for reduced meat and dairy production. While meat and dairy production and consumption are increasingly being held responsible for climate change and general environmental destruction, questions of how social movements respond to and are affected by global calls for a reduction of meat and dairy products remain underexplored in relation to markets. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Telangana, India, and California, USA, the author adopts a multi-sited, sociomaterial approach to investigate how moral issues intersect with economic arrangements, revealing how movements influence markets and vice versa. It establishes an empirically-based, interdisciplinary research agenda for exploring how the plant-based moral economy is understood, practised and contested at different social levels across both the Global North and South, and advances a broader theorization of the moral economy of plant-based futures. An examination of the interaction of moral issues with economic arrangements, which combines a social movements perspective with a moral economy approach, the book offers a compelling lens for exploring how movements make markets. It will therefore appeal to scholars and students of sociology, anthropology, geography, development, movements and globalization with interests in food, the environment and the moral economy.