Lifting the Veil on Infidel Brands: Islamist Discourses of Anticonsumerism

This paper examines how political Islam as a contemporary resistance ideology materializes in the consumption realm in a developing country. Through a critical ethnography, the study investigates how Islamism motivates consumers' defiant stances towards global brands and identifies three Islami...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Izberk-Bilgin, Elif
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Brand image
Consumer behavior
Consumers
Developing countries
Islamism
LDCs
Studies
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This paper examines how political Islam as a contemporary resistance ideology materializes in the consumption realm in a developing country. Through a critical ethnography, the study investigates how Islamism motivates consumers' defiant stances towards global brands and identifies three Islamist anticonsumptionist discourses that socio-historically construct the meaning of global brands as infidel brands. Through the discourses of modesty, helal-haram, and oppression Islamist consumers not only determine what constitutes infidel brands, but also seek a romanticized Islamic social order. The findings of this research compel us to re-examine existing accounts of consumer activism as a postmodern phenomenon with hedonic, aesthetic, and self-expressive motivations.
ISSN:0098-9258