Description
Book SynopsisWorking and living as an authentic Muslimcomporting oneself in an Islamically appropriate wayin the global economy can be very challenging. How do middle-class Muslims living in the Middle East navigate contemporary economic demands in a distinctly Islamic way? What are the impacts of these efforts on their Islamic piety? To what authority does one turn when questions arise? What happens when the answers vary and there is little or no consensus? To answer these questions, Everyday Piety examines the intersection of globalization and Islamic religious life in the city of Amman, Jordan.
Drawing on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in Amman, Sarah A. Tobin demonstrates that Muslims combine their interests in exerting a visible Islam with the opportunities and challenges of advanced capitalism in an urban setting, which ultimately results in the cultivation of a neoliberal Islamic piety. Neoliberal piety, Tobin contends, is created by both Islamizing economic practices and ec
Trade Review
Through her examination of Islamic banking, Tobin explores the role that piety plays in the commercial interactions of middle-class Muslims in Jordan's capital, Amman.... Her stylish, ambitious, and pragmatic interlocutors undermine any stale conceptions readers might have of contemporary Muslims, and her treatment of the workplace as a space where moral debates are negotiated points to the social significance of work relationships and their related social dynamics. The book's accessible and sensitive treatment of urban Jordanians and the role of morality in their economic choices make it a fine choice for students as well as scholars interested in the topics of work, identity, religion, and global finance.
-- Susan MacDougall, Oxford University * Anthropology of Work Review *
Provides vivid insight into people's complex engagements with piety across a range of contexts.... Its subject matter, theoretical sophistication, and detailed fieldwork make this book a valuable resource for scholars and students of the Middle East, economic anthropology, and the anthropology of Islam.
* Contemporary Islam *
Table of Contents1 A Muslim Plays the Slot Machines
2 The History of Amman: "I Don't Recognize It Anymore"
3 Making It Meaningful: Ramadan
4 Love, Sex, and the Market: The Hijab
5 Making It Real: Adequation
6 Uncertainty Inside the Islamic Bank: "Is This the Real Islam?"
7 Consuming Islamic Banking: "They Say They’re Islamic, So They Are."
8 Branding Islam: Jordan’s Arab Spring, Middle Class, and Islam
