Making sense of a fragmented literature: a Weberian-inspired categorisation of Islamic banking and finance

Abstract

The phenomenon of Islamic banking and finance (IBF) has become an important international trend, but the academic discourse is still divided into conflicting interpretational schemata and normative interests. To systematise and explain the variety of literature in this area, a five-category typology is created in this paper. With methodological perspectives of Max Weber regarding ideal types, we position IBF scholarship on a spectrum from normative advocates (who focus on the ethics and theology of legitimacy based on Sharīʿah principles) to rationalists and moral-economy reconstructionists (who focus on the empirical performance and socio-economic transformation, respectively) to sceptics and critics (who question the structural, operational and ideal). This classification sheds some light on recurrent tensions, emphasises assumptions in competition, and offers a consistent analytical frame through which to make sense of the conceptual plurality of the field. Through mapping these different academic stands, this paper will show that categorisation is not only an administrative act but also an epistemological act that helps to demystify the significant differences in complex social phenomena. The framework is especially useful to researchers still in the early stages of their careers, who need to place their work in the context of the wider intellectual field of Islamic banking and finance, while also offering senior scholars, regulators, and industry practitioners an accessible map of the normative assumptions that underpin competing positions in the field.