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From Structure to Purpose: Green and Social Narratives, and the Shifting Morality of Islamic Finance in Kuala Lumpur

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  • Adnan Zikri Jaafar

    (School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK)

  • Marc Brightman

    (Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, 48121 Ravenna, Italy)

Abstract

Background: The anthropology of sustainability documents and interprets diverse visions of sustainable and liveable futures. Islamic scholars and financiers are now debating the distinctive contribution of Islamic finance to global sustainability. While mainstream global finance has only recently begun to pay explicit attention to social and environmental sustainability, Islamic economics has always emphasised the need to benefit society, the community, and the environment. Objectives: We ask what has been the influence of the emergence of green and social finance upon Islamic finance in Malaysia, the global centre of Islamic finance. Methods: The study is based on collaborative, co-productive ethnography and autoethnography, and textual analysis of working documents of the Securities Commission Malaysia, focusing on how environmental requirements are expressed in new financial products, known as green sukuks , or green Islamic bonds. Results and conclusions: We have found that much of the moral debate in Islamic finance has revolved around the distribution of financial risk: when investors share the risk of failure, they can participate in society rather than merely exploiting social relations, yet the emergence of ‘green’ Islamic finance appears to shift the centre of moral gravity away from risk structuring towards technical criteria of sustainability, replicating the growth-oriented anthropocentric managerialism of mainstream finance.

Suggested Citation

  • Adnan Zikri Jaafar & Marc Brightman, 2022. "From Structure to Purpose: Green and Social Narratives, and the Shifting Morality of Islamic Finance in Kuala Lumpur," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-17, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5433-:d:806647
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Timur Kuran, 1995. "Islamic Economics and the Islamic Subeconomy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 155-173, Fall.
    2. Aneil Tripathy, 2017. "Translating to risk: The legibility of climate change and nature in the green bond market," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 239-250, June.
    3. Kuran, T., 1995. "Islamic Economics and the Islamic Subeconomy," Papers 9505, Southern California - Department of Economics.
    4. Eddy S. Fang, 2014. "Islamic finance in global markets: Materialism, ideas and the construction of financial knowledge," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 1170-1202, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Shome, Samik & Hassan, M. Kabir & Verma, Sushma & Panigrahi, Tushar Ranjan, 2023. "Impact investment for sustainable development: A bibliometric analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 770-800.
    2. Rini Cahyandari & Kalfin & Sukono & Sri Purwani & Dewi Ratnasari & Titin Herawati & Sutiono Mahdi, 2023. "The Development of Sharia Insurance and Its Future Sustainability in Risk Management: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-23, May.
    3. Ben Eyre & Oiara Bonilla & Marc Brightman & Stefan Voicu, 2024. "Beyond the ‘tyranny of metrics’? Indicator literacy in sustainable finance," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 115(5), pages 582-597, December.

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