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Days of (un) Rest: Political Consumerism and the Struggle over the Sabbath

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2012

Guy Ben Porat  and
Omri Shamir
Guy Ben Porat*
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Omri Shamir*
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Guy Ben Porat, Department of Public Policy and Administration, Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel84105. E-mail: [email protected]; or to Omri Shamir, Department of Public Policy and Administration, Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel84105. E-mail: [email protected]
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Guy Ben Porat, Department of Public Policy and Administration, Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel84105. E-mail: [email protected]; or to Omri Shamir, Department of Public Policy and Administration, Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel84105. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In spite of legal limitations, commerce in Israel on the Sabbath has expanded significantly in the past two decades. This secular development is counteracted by religious boycotts of stores operating on the Sabbath. Using Ulrich Beck's concept of sub-politics, we explain the shift away from the formal political realm, a result of a deadlocked political system that is no longer able to regulate boundaries between the religious and secular realm. As a result, both religious and secular communities use their power as consumers, albeit in different ways, to shape the public sphere. Using media reports and open-ended interviews with religious and secular entrepreneurs we demonstrate how, first, the value of formal political channels was eroded and, second, how the economic power of religious and secular consumers is used in the new struggles to shape the day of rest.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , April 2012 , pp. 161 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2012

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