Ryan Calder
I study the relationship between 21st-century capitalism and 21st-century religion. Classical social theorists such as Karl Marx and Max Weber argued that religious authority over markets and market actors tends to decline as economies modernize. Yet today, there are industries and firms thriving under religious regulation and certification by producing goods and services that are, by most definitions, "modern." In Islam, there are shariah-compliant mortgages and cryptocurrencies, halal ports, halal refrigerators, and halal blockchain; in Judaism, Shabbat-mode appliances, kosher enzymes, kosher mobile phones, and kosher investment funds; in Christianity, mutual funds that meet Lutheran, Southern Baptist, Roman Catholic, Mennonite, and Christian Scientist screening criteria; and in Hinduism, a business empire selling toothpaste, ghee, and other consumer goods approved by a famous Indian guru. Contrary to the expectations of classical theory, many of these industries and firms are highly rationalized: that is, they operate efficiently and systematically in order to maximize profitability.
So how is this possible? Under what conditions can religious authority govern markets? How does religious authority extend to new types of products and services? What kinds of subjectivities and forms of piety make religious governance of markets possible, and what kinds are in turn fostered by them? These questions animate my current research.
My primary project examines the Islamic finance industry, which emerged in the 1970s at the intersection of modernist Islamic economics, Islamic revival, and the oil shocks. I study how 21st-century financial institutions express and construct piety through shariah-compliant financings, asset-backed securities, equity funds, and derivatives. My book manuscript is entitled "Rationalization without Secularization: The Rise of Islamic Finance."
My secondary project, tentatively titled “The Halal Boom,” investigates the spread of formal rationalization — halal certification and labeling — in food, finance, pharmaceuticals, biotech, tourism, cosmetics, and logistics.
Phone: 5109262043
Address: Department of Sociology
533 Mergenthaler Hall
3400 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
USA
So how is this possible? Under what conditions can religious authority govern markets? How does religious authority extend to new types of products and services? What kinds of subjectivities and forms of piety make religious governance of markets possible, and what kinds are in turn fostered by them? These questions animate my current research.
My primary project examines the Islamic finance industry, which emerged in the 1970s at the intersection of modernist Islamic economics, Islamic revival, and the oil shocks. I study how 21st-century financial institutions express and construct piety through shariah-compliant financings, asset-backed securities, equity funds, and derivatives. My book manuscript is entitled "Rationalization without Secularization: The Rise of Islamic Finance."
My secondary project, tentatively titled “The Halal Boom,” investigates the spread of formal rationalization — halal certification and labeling — in food, finance, pharmaceuticals, biotech, tourism, cosmetics, and logistics.
Phone: 5109262043
Address: Department of Sociology
533 Mergenthaler Hall
3400 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
USA
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Papers by Ryan Calder
Honorable Mention, 2021 ASA Economic Sociology Section Granovetter Award for Best Paper
In Islam, the extension of religious regulation and certification to new product types and economic sectors—"halalization"—has become widespread. There are now Islamic mortgages, halal ports, halal refrigerators, halal blockchain, and shariah-compliant cryptocurrencies. Yet classical secularization theory says religious authority cannot regulate modern economic activity. So what explains halalization? I point to an elective affinity between fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and twenty-first-century markets. Contemporary fiqh offers widely respected religious jurists who issue fatwas certifying products. Entrepreneurs empanel the jurists on certification boards, allowing fiqh to function as a regime of voluntary regulation layered atop secular state law instead of conflicting with it. Indeed, secular liberal markets provide ideal conditions for halalization and religious meaning-making through consumption. Case studies of Islamic finance and halal logistics show how entrepreneurs assuage consumers' religious anxieties—and generate new ones—in the context of globalization and liberalization in secular markets.
Aristotle, Ibn Khaldun, or Montesquieu may rightfully claim to be the founder of political sociology insofar as they highlighted the social bases of power relations and political institutions. However, most contemporary scholars trace their intellectual lineage to Marx or Weber. Political sociology emerged as a distinct subfield in the 1950s, especially in the debate between pluralists and elite theorists. In the 1980s and 1990s political sociologists focused on social movements, the state, and institutions.
Honorable Mention, 2021 ASA Economic Sociology Section Granovetter Award for Best Paper
In Islam, the extension of religious regulation and certification to new product types and economic sectors—"halalization"—has become widespread. There are now Islamic mortgages, halal ports, halal refrigerators, halal blockchain, and shariah-compliant cryptocurrencies. Yet classical secularization theory says religious authority cannot regulate modern economic activity. So what explains halalization? I point to an elective affinity between fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and twenty-first-century markets. Contemporary fiqh offers widely respected religious jurists who issue fatwas certifying products. Entrepreneurs empanel the jurists on certification boards, allowing fiqh to function as a regime of voluntary regulation layered atop secular state law instead of conflicting with it. Indeed, secular liberal markets provide ideal conditions for halalization and religious meaning-making through consumption. Case studies of Islamic finance and halal logistics show how entrepreneurs assuage consumers' religious anxieties—and generate new ones—in the context of globalization and liberalization in secular markets.
Aristotle, Ibn Khaldun, or Montesquieu may rightfully claim to be the founder of political sociology insofar as they highlighted the social bases of power relations and political institutions. However, most contemporary scholars trace their intellectual lineage to Marx or Weber. Political sociology emerged as a distinct subfield in the 1950s, especially in the debate between pluralists and elite theorists. In the 1980s and 1990s political sociologists focused on social movements, the state, and institutions.
What is the relationship between economic globalization and the evolution of the welfare state? Social scientists have posed this question largely in the context of Northwestern Europe and the Anglo-Saxon world. Globalization and the Future of the Welfare State is unusual in asking it with regard to middle-income countries and in so doing offers insightful case studies of welfare regimes outside the traditional stomping ground of welfare-state analysts.
The book’s core comprises five case studies: Latin America, Iberia, east-central Europe, Russia, and South Korea.