Azrein Azalie (2025)
PhD thesis. London: University College London.
Abstract. This research delves into Brunei’s halal certification program in the food industry through the lens of Foucault’s (1991a) governmentality. Employing “Islamic governmentality”, it explores the interplay of political rationalities and governing technologies used in halal governance, as seen through Dean’s (2010) Analytics of Government (AOG), and the impact on Brunei’s food businesses. Analysis of Halal Food Control Division’s (HFCD) social media and governor interviews underscore the significant role of the monarchy in shaping political rationalities for halalisation and the use of diverse governing technologies, such as the Quran and the Hadith and industrial halal, as well as the digital space for socialisation, knowledge production, sharing, and creating halal behavioural standards. It also brings to light the existence of various governmentalities within halal certification governance. Insights from business surveys and interviews highlight the challenges in translating the idealised vision of Islamic governance into actual practices, including information asymmetries, ineffective knowledge-sharing, and personalised halal certification processes. Economically, businesses faced escalated production costs, limited market access, and imbalanced power dynamics with standard-setters, which impeded growth. These findings offer evidence of the impact of halal governance when Islamic governmentality, a concept that remains largely theoretical in contemporary Islamic ethics and governance fields, is put into action. Furthermore, assessing governmentality and its effects on the governed subject in this study provides extended linkages that Foucauldian governmentality scholars have yet to make clear, a novelty in its own terms. This is imperative as the world is in the middle of a transition, with more efforts being put into materialising the vision 2030 via the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore, by proposing the integration of five components in Islamic governance for effective halal governmentality, the Integrated Islamic Halal Governmentality (IIHG) model is formulated to achieve fair and just halal governance whilst addressing some essential components relating to sustainability.
Extract: “2.0 Convention Theory on Quality Standards
Within the social sciences, studies on contemporary economics and industrial development have focused on several themes. Sources of economic organisation and coordination among firms, industrial players, and networks – especially in the case of the production networks, commodity/ value chains (Gereffi, 2001; Pratt, 2008) and structuration theories on structure-agency relationships, usually between state and societal actors have been focused. Within development studies, concepts of political economy and governance are used to study the dynamism of actors or agents within the economy. These concepts have been used to understand the structural implications of policy, power politics, consultation, coordination, and decision-making processes relating to individuals and small collective groups at macro and micro levels (Biggart & Beamish, 2003). […] A thorough exploration of the halal literature led to the conclusion that halal standards contain all the six principles of worth with one additional principle, i.e. as part of fulfilling Islamic teachings or commandments towards halal food consumption (see sub-section on halal standards for details). According to Thévenot (2002), economic forms and justification are social processes. Decision-making on what constitutes an agreeable standard is dictated by the conditions under which it is being made. The six-worth order above gives an idea of how justifications are being made. According to Jagd (2007) and Wilkinson (1997), as part of the decision-making process, conventions also call for the importance of criticisms and disputes to resolve problems and conflicts.
Concerning the second order ‘industrial’, the work by Andre Orléan (2002, 2003) provided another insight into conventions. While Boltanski and Thévenot investigated the multi-dimensional aspects of standards decision-making in conventions, Orléan’s work discussed market coordination among the economic actors. In a nutshell, Orléan’s work focused on the debates revolving around two hypotheses relating to the Walrasian approach to economics, i.e. the Nomenclature hypothesis and the Probability hypothesis (cited in Jagd, 2007). Under the first approach, the traditional view on conventions or standards emphasises the importance of economic order, the need to comply with a set of ‘pre-given’ standards, requirements and routines (a programme?) towards successful coordination (Jagd, 2007; Biggart & Beamish, 2003). Economic agents such as producers and food processors, as found in the case of food standards, are made to adopt a ‘pre-given’ standard by buyers in the name of compliance and health and safety reasons before gaining market access.” (p.71f)
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
GdL (20 septembre 2025). Islamic Governmentality and Food Business Development: The Case of Brunei Halal Certification (2011- 2021). Économie des conventions. Consulté le 9 février 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/14pw3