Publication

This paper explores Malaysia's bid to become the world leader in the global market for halal food: the food permitted under Islamic guidance. The country has standardized and bureaucratized its halal market to export its model. For that purpose the network as a strategic metaphor is evoked to signify connectedness and prescriptions of organization vis-à-vis more deep-rooted networks, the author argues. He eventually builds on empirical material from research in Malaysia and the UK to show how networks are understood in a metaphorical sense.