Interplay of religion and marketplace transactions

Abstract

Through an ethnographic study of an Indian marketplace, I examine how religion shapes marketplace transactions. In considering the impact of religion on marketplace transactions, I find that impression management through information control becomes a means of stigma management, when religion is stigmatized. In addition, I find that stigma is engendered through a complex intertwining of socio-economic situatedness and marketplace functioning. Through my findings, I question the excessive focus placed on the benign, beneficial, and positive facets of social embeddedness. Furthermore, my findings suggest that the existing discourse on modernity as a fountainhead of secularization, is limiting. Finally, this research offers insights into processes of stigma constitution and management. By focusing on a traditional marketplace setting, I extend understanding of a dominant form of retailing in the global context, which is currently under-represented in marketing literature.