Situating Halal: Religiosity, identity and lifestyle in halal consumption in the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates

Miele, Mara ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5774-2860, Lever, John, Evans, Adrian and Fuseini, Awal 2024. Situating Halal: Religiosity, identity and lifestyle in halal consumption in the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates. Consumption and Society 3 (1) , pp. 37-55. 10.1332/27528499Y2023D000000001 Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

In this paper we draw on a study of Muslim consumer perceptions and concerns about halal labels and certification practices in two affluent countries: the United Kingdom (UK) (where Muslims are a minority of the population) and United Arab Emirates (UAE) (where Muslims are the majority). The study looked at a stratified sample of 330 Muslim consumers in each country. Our analysis points to a growing demand for variety alongside increasing concern for the presence of food additives, GMOs, and alcohol in both cases. Expanding demands to label food and other commodities suitable for Muslims with information about quality and standards of production (Gauthier, 2021) are globalising trends, which Muslims everywhere engage with through ‘an Islamic lens – halal’ (Turaeva and Brose, 2020: 301). Our paper wants to address the gap in the literature that very little is known about how consumers perceive the halal concept regarding foodstuffs (see Demirci et al. 2016), and it argues that the expansion and segmentation of halal markets suggest that religious consumerism is affected by religious groups, but also by supply chain actors and that these markets cannot be controlled by religious authorities. Our research findings provide fresh insight into the existing understanding of religion and consumption, pointing to the geographical specificities of processes of politicization of halal consumption: the rise of new Muslim youth subcultures in the UK and the coexistence of growing processes of secularization with ‘halalization’ in the UAE.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
ISSN:	2752-8499
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	4 September 2023
Date of Acceptance:	30 August 2023
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2024 04:14
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/162230

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