Overview

Working and living as an authentic Muslim-comporting oneself in an Islamically appropriate way-in 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 economizing Islamic piety, and is done in ways that reflect a modern, cosmopolitan style and aesthetic, revealing a keen interest in displays of authenticity on the part of the actors. Tobin highlights sites at which economic life and Islamic virtue intersect: Ramadan, the hijab, Islamic economics, Islamic banking, and consumption. Each case reflects the shift from conditions and contexts of highly regulated and legalized moral behaviors to greater levels of uncertainty and indeterminacy. In its ethnographic richness, this book shows that actors make normative claims of an authentic, real Islam in economic practice and measure them against standards that derive from Islamic law, other sources of knowledge, and the pragmatics of everyday life.

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9781501700453

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Reviews

In Everyday Piety, Sarah A. Tobin draws our attention to the complex and dynamic ways in which everyday practices of piety intersect with various dimensions of what might conventionally be called economic practices. The analysis is situated in Amman, Jordan, a growing metropolitan area in which portions of the landscape are being restructured by neoliberal practices, aesthetics, public spaces, and modes of social interaction. Tobin's original approach opens up new space for thinking about the role of religion in a rapidly changing region. A must-read and one of the most exciting and innovative works in years. -Jillian Schwedler, author of Faith in Moderation Everyday Piety makes key interventions both in anthropological approaches to Islam and in diagramming contemporary assemblages of religious practice and economic action. Sarah A. Tobin vividly depicts middle-class Islamic piety in Jordan today. In this nuanced account her interlocutors are neither radically other nor caricatures of modernity. Everyday Piety demonstrates how Muslims carefully navigate questions of faith and reason, holding both in an uneasy yet productive tension amid extensive social and political transformations. It is a virtuoso instance of ethnography in a contemporary urban setting. -Daromir Rudnyckyj, author of Spiritual Economies In Everyday Piety, which is theoretically sophisticated and ethnographically rich and engaging, Sarah A. Tobin skillfully navigates the complexities of urban Jordanians' economic practices. The enmeshment of neoliberal economics, class, and piety provides a compelling and novel lens through which to examine the dynamically negotiated everyday practices of Islam. -Julie Peteet, Professor of Anthropology, University of Louisville, author of Landscape of Hope and Despair: Palestinian Refugee Camps

"""In Everyday Piety, Sarah A. Tobin draws our attention to the complex and dynamic ways in which everyday practices of piety intersect with various dimensions of what might conventionally be called economic practices. The analysis is situated in Amman, Jordan, a growing metropolitan area in which portions of the landscape are being restructured by neoliberal practices, aesthetics, public spaces, and modes of social interaction. Tobin's original approach opens up new space for thinking about the role of religion in a rapidly changing region. A must-read and one of the most exciting and innovative works in years.""-Jillian Schwedler, author of Faith in Moderation ""Everyday Piety makes key interventions both in anthropological approaches to Islam and in diagramming contemporary assemblages of religious practice and economic action. Sarah A. Tobin vividly depicts middle-class Islamic piety in Jordan today. In this nuanced account her interlocutors are neither radically other nor caricatures of modernity. Everyday Piety demonstrates how Muslims carefully navigate questions of faith and reason, holding both in an uneasy yet productive tension amid extensive social and political transformations. It is a virtuoso instance of ethnography in a contemporary urban setting.""-Daromir Rudnyckyj, author of Spiritual Economies ""In Everyday Piety, which is theoretically sophisticated and ethnographically rich and engaging, Sarah A. Tobin skillfully navigates the complexities of urban Jordanians' economic practices. The enmeshment of neoliberal economics, class, and piety provides a compelling and novel lens through which to examine the dynamically negotiated everyday practices of Islam.""-Julie Peteet, Professor of Anthropology, University of Louisville, author of Landscape of Hope and Despair: Palestinian Refugee Camps"

Author Information

Sarah A. Tobin is the Associate Director of Middle East Studies at Brown University.

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