Engineering Entrepreneurial Ethics: Islam after Development in Indonesia

Abstract

This article analyzes a socio-technical scheme to engineer an ethics of entrepreneurship grounded in Islam in contemporary Indonesia. In analyzing these efforts to develop faith, this paper argues that a new form of Islamic practice is being introduced to facilitate the neoliberal reform of state-owned enterprises planned for privatization. Based on over two years of ethnographic research, most of which took place at state-owned Krakatau Steel, the article shows how what Indonesians call “spiritual reform” is mobilized to address the crisis posed by the end of faith in development. Faith in development refers to state-directed development and the post-colonial project of nationalist modernization and industrialization. The paper describes how spiritual reformers interpret the Qur’an, Islamic history, and religious practices to make Islam compatible with principles for corporate success found in human resources management texts, self-help manuals, and life-coaching sessions. Although some recent accounts assert that Islam has historically been inimical to capitalism, the article concludes that evidence from Southeast Asia demonstrates how Muslims in the region today are seeking to reinterpret Islam to make it commensurable with the demands of globalization.

Keywords

• islam
• development
• Indonesia
• globalization
• entrepreneurship
• subjectivation