Conceptualizing dynamic challenges to global financial diffusion: Islamic finance and the grafting of sukuk

Following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008–2009, there has been renewed interest in the diffusion and pluralization of financial ideas and practices, and in understanding how new ideas and practices can emerge to challenge the prevalence and diffusion of dominant ones. However, existing concepts and language in the broader literature on diffusion limit our ability to analyze and assess the contestation of ideas, especially as it is sustained and transformed over time. In this paper, we develop the concept of grafting as a post-equilibrium approach to analyze the ongoing contestation of global finance at the level of market practice. We apply our conceptual framework to analyze the complex dynamics of a class of financial assets that in recent years has made significant inroads in global financial markets: sukuk, often referred to as Islamic bonds. We highlight dynamic differences in the grafting of ideas and practices from Islam and conventional finance and suggest that the grafting of sukuk is an ongoing contestation of the diffusion of global finance that contributes to the emergence of an increasingly pluralistic global economy.