Right business, right consumption: Controlling commodification and guiding consumption in a Tibetan Buddhist organisation in Scotland

Abstract

Historically, global consumer culture has been portrayed as a threat to traditional and authentic religions. However, in more recent times, several studies have begun to identify that religious organisations and their participants can resist the corrosive effects that adaptation to consumer culture can have on their organisations and practices. Nevertheless, how this is to be achieved remains under-explained, and the purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the branches of the Tibetan Buddhist organisation Rokpa International in Scotland has managed its adaptation to consumer culture through controlling commodification and guiding the consumption of practitioners. It is also demonstrated that this controlled adaptation to consumerism allows both individual participants and the organisation to further religious goals in line with Tibetan Buddhist philosophy.