The postliberal politics of halal

This paper examines the emergence of postliberal aggregates of power in the global meat industry. Drawing on research undertaken during the EU funded Dialrel project, it examines the emergence of new social and economic alliances that are pushing the development of halal meat markets in Europe and Asia past neoliberal understandings. Moving beyond the idea of horizontally aligned networks of transnational power as the dominant framework for understanding economic and social change, the paper explores the ways in which diverse elements of economy and civil society are being drawn together in new ways in order to capture the subjectivities transnational governance cannot. While religious and market actors across Europe have helped to drive the growth of halal meat markets as demographic and global political change has intensified, this paper argues that the postliberal figurations that are emerging have the potential to be an important step in the global civilizing process