As the subject of the book suggests the purpose of the analysis is to determine how different religious and ethnic communities utilise space/urban infrastructure in Kuala Lumpur (KL). This chapter introduces the idea of radical inclusivity as a significant effort to create a universal ontological framework that supersedes religious, national, economic or ethnic divisions. The aim is to test the hypothesis that the city produces non-consensual social structuresâa kind of âcommunity of a higher orderâ which is not defined by a collective identity, but rather through co-dependence and co-living. The Malaysian conceptualisations of the notion of âcommunityâ, critically comparing its Western traditions, Anglo-Saxon colonial practices and legacy with the Islamic idea of the Ummah and Islamic approaches to non-Muslim communities are all analysed. This book focuses on the theory of an intellectual tool used to conduct research and guide the outcome of the empirical study. The purpose of this chapter is to define a theoretical context framing the investigation that follows.
The first part of the chapter explains in detail the notion of radical inclusivity and the Ummah as the Islamic notion of social unity.
Radical inclusivity assumes an infinity of the universe; it assumes progress and constant changeâalso a change of hierarchies. There is a horizon of the whole, but there is no process of unification. In the urban scale, the city is the best environment to test the notion of radical inclusivity, since its space is ânaturallyâ used by a diverse range of people. Moreover, as a spatial entity, the city allows different (even contradictory) activities to happen at the same time. This section aims to explore the theoretical frameworks of the idea of âRadical Inclusivityâ to put the main argument in urban debates.
Radical or Absolute inclusivity has its roots in the Christian and Islamic Universalism (or in fact in any religion claiming the existence of Absolute); however, to have roots, it does not mean that radical inclusivity is exclusive to any religion. Focusing on the idea of âinclusionâ, Carl Schmitt believes that âthe specific political distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced is that between friend and enemyâ. In this sense, the central argument of Schmittâs âConcept of the Politicalâ posits its juxtaposition in the dichotomy of friend versus enemy (Schmitt, 2007, p. 26). Jane Jacobs argues that definitions of âselfâ and âotherâ are building blocks for hierarchies of spatial power (Jacobs, 2002, p. 4). Focusing on the politics of identity enacted in urban space, Jacobs finds them as âthe struggles that produce promiscuous geographies of dwelling in place in which the categories of Self and Other, here and there, past and present, constantly solicit one anotherâ (Jacobs, 2002, p. 5). The notion of inclusion can be rendered in Jacques Rancièreâs works as the inside-out dichotomy. He uses the concept of âle partage du sensibleâ to describe the act of dividing between legitimate and illegitimate persons and forms of activity (Rancière, 2010, p. 60). In this definition, the sensible is precisely what can be thought, said, felt or perceived/the perceptible, the visible, etc. Rancière defines the urban space as a form of visibility that can serve as interruptions of the given partition of the sensible.
However, this dichotomy of friend and enemy is neither derived nor linked to another antithesis; instead, this binary grouping is independent and only corresponds to these other antitheses. As Torgovnick emphasised, we make sense of our world âin the act of defining the otherâ (Torgovnick, 1999, p. 11). Similarly, Morton clarified that âwestern philosophy has traditionally defined âthe otherââ as an object of consciousness for the western subject. This reductive definition has effectively destroyed the singular alterity of the otherâ (Morton, 2003, p. 37).â Focusing on Schmittâs concept of the political, Strauss argues that âthe political â the grouping of humanity into friends and enemies â owes it legitimation to the seriousness of the question of what is rightâ (Strauss, 2007, p. 118).
On the other hand, Chinese philosopher Tingyang Zhao rejects Schmitt perspective on politics based on the distinction between a friend and a foe as a ââŚthe typical wrong in western political consciousness, or subconsciousness, in which political impulse divides and breaks up the worldâ (Zhao, 2006, p. 34). Zhao believes that the Chinese system based on families differs fundamentally from the Western system based on individuals. Chinese political thinking is often criticised for its neglect of the individual as well as individual rights, but this is a misunderstanding of the Chinese Philosophy and a poor understanding of political society (Zhao, 2006, p. 33). He questions the value of focusing on an individual while discussing politics:
There is no Chinese denial of the value of the individual, but rather a denial of the individual to be a political foundation or starting point, because the political makes sense only when it deals with ârelationsâ rather than âindividualsâ, and the political is meant to speak for co-existence rather than a single existence.
As Giddens clarified the modern western political theory is based on the system of nation/states (Giddens, 1985), while the Chinese most significant political unit is the framework of world/society. In the book by Krzysztof Nawratek titled Total Urban Mobilisation the author emphasised that Zhaoâs idea of All-under-Heaven as a political project allows us to see the cities (and also fragments of cities) as socio-spatial and temporal beings while reaching the ultimate horizon of the world-ness (Nawratek, 2019, p. 88). Nawratek added, âthe city exists because there is âanother dimensionâ (the commons, the public) putting private domains in a broader context and allowing them to interactâ (Nawratek, 2019, p. 83).
Within the context of contemporary politics, there are different logics (or tendencies) to define radical inclusivity. Following Ernesto Laclauâs definition, radical inclusion can be considered as the populist logic of inclusion that employs a liberal universalist conception of inclusivity in which âthe 99 per centâ is a taken-for-granted category and understood to exist in itself (Laclau, 2005). Some other scholars believe that the radical politics of inclusion are enacted through anti-oppressive practices in which ideals of inclusivity are understood as a process and a struggle. In the recent occupy movements, inclusivity is not just about the general participation in the movement, but also inherently tied to the procedures and practices through which decisions were made (Maharawal, 2013, p. 179). According to Gerald Raunig, radical inclusion means âto sustain and afďŹrm the differences, and within them continue to differentiate, multiply, in a continuous expansion of multiplicityâ (Raunig, 2014, p. 34). Moreover, radical inclusion involves the âreterritorialization of space and timeâ, allowing for âa fundamentally inclusive territory without doors or thresholds, not surrounded or traversed from the outset by bordersâ (Raunig, 2014, p. 33). In this sense, radical inclusion recognises âa need for invention, innovation and multiplication of revolutionary practices and narrativesâ (Raunig, 2014, p. 34).
âCommunityâ as a sociocultural paradigm
Robert Esposito, in his seminal book âCommunitasâ, defines a foundation of a community as an absence. He doesnât reject the communitarian understanding of its notionâas based on shared identity and values; but Esposito focuses his attention on a violent process of becoming a member of the community. The very act of birth violently puts a human being in specific social structuresâfamily, nation, class. After that, every decision to join any community is grounded by a particular rite of passageâto become a part of a community one must change (or/and paid a specific price). Community imposes on us liabilities of obligationsâeven if belonging to the community is seen as a gift. Esposito writes about the âgiftâ of Eucharist, through which Catholics become part of the church, defined as the mystical body of Christâthe same body that had been tortured and killed. Whatâs more, this inclusion is something as alien as âthe body of Godâ tears us violently from our own individual identity. What Esposito ignores in his analysis is the fact that the Eucharist is a kind of mechanism/infrastructure that exists outside members of the community allowing them to âplug inâ to the Absolute (Esposito, 2010).
The Islamic sociopolitical PhilosopherâAbu Nasr Farabiâenvisioned an ideal or perfect city, under a philosopherâking for humankind to attain happiness through living in an entirely guided city. Besides, Farabi believes that humans cannot reach the perfection they are destined to outside the framework of political societies. According to Farabi, this political understanding of the concept of the city has always entangled into the theological concepts (Mehan, 2016, p. 311).
Agamben in his book âThe Coming Communityâ emphasised that the coming community finds its place in a profound present and within the potentiality of change and transformation to open up a reflection on the idea of âradical changeâ (Agamben, 1993, p. 222). For Agamben, the advanced capitalism produces a high accumulation of âdispositiviâ extending its paranoid forms of control with mechanisms of inclusion/exclusion, while politics has disappeared, supporting the governmental machine (Agamben, 1998). In Agambenâs definitions, the term âdispositiviâ suggests a reflection on the sovereignty of life and governmentality (Agamben, 2009). In this interpretation, Jean Luc Nancy defined the community through the political nature of its resistance against immanent power (Nancy, 1991).
Similarly, Krzysztof Nawratek, in his book âCity as a political ideaâ created a notion of a-androgyne, who can interact with the world/other people because of its incompleteness (Nawratek, 2011). The problem with the community lies in its totality and unificationâthe community assumes a standard set of features that distinguish membe...
