Overview

Kuala Lumpur is a diverse city representing many different religions and nationalities. Recent government policy has actively promoted unity and cohesion throughout the city; and the country of Malaysia, with the implementation of a programme called 1Malaysia. In this book, the authors investigate the aims of this programme—predominantly to unify the Malaysian society—and how these objectives resonate in the daily spatial practices of the city’s residents. This book argues that elements of urban infrastructure could work as an essential mediator ‘beyond community’, allowing inclusive social structures to be built, despite cultural and religious tensions existing within the city. It builds on the premise of an empirical study which explores the ways in which different communities use the same spaces, supported through the implementation of a theoretical framework which looks at both Western and Islamic conceptualisations of the notion of community. Through the analysis of Kuala Lumpur, this book contributes towards the creation of more inclusive places in multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious communities across the world.

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9781032474830

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Reviews

The book by Marek Kozlowski, Asma Mehan and Krzysztof Nawratek offers a well-structured insight in a multiethnic microcosm of the Southeast Asian metropole of Kuala Lumpur, one of the most important urban centers in this part of the world. Their theoretical approach towards problems they discuss is combined with presentation of KL's history and complicated, multidimensional religious, social and political structure of the place, which is the heart of today's Malaysia. The book provides a scholarly deep, nuanced, but at the same time fascinating analysis of the urban fabric of Kuala Lumpur - the city with ambitions, but also some weaknesses. It is strongly supported with information about facts concerning the present state and possible future of its broadly understood urban and social infrastructure. - Dr. Jaroslaw Suchoples - Senior Research Fellow, Department of Art, Music and Culture Studies, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland The highly diverse urban societies face the challenge of social fragmentation and exclusion. This book's investigation of a major Asian metropolis provides fresh insights into the possible role of the socio-spatial infrastructure in linking the different social groups living in large urban centres. - Ali Madanipour is Professor of Urban Design at Newcastle University, UK

"“The book by Marek Kozlowski, Asma Mehan and Krzysztof Nawratek offers a well-structured insight in a multiethnic microcosm of the Southeast Asian metropole of Kuala Lumpur, one of the most important urban centers in this part of the world. Their theoretical approach towards problems they discuss is combined with presentation of KL’s history and complicated, multidimensional religious, social and political structure of the place, which is the heart of today’s Malaysia. The book provides a scholarly deep, nuanced, but at the same time fascinating analysis of the urban fabric of Kuala Lumpur – the city with ambitions, but also some weaknesses. It is strongly supported with information about facts concerning the present state and possible future of its broadly understood urban and social infrastructure.” - Dr. Jarosław Suchoples – Senior Research Fellow, Department of Art, Music and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland ""The highly diverse urban societies face the challenge of social fragmentation and exclusion. This book’s investigation of a major Asian metropolis provides fresh insights into the possible role of the socio-spatial infrastructure in linking the different social groups living in large urban centres."" - Ali Madanipour is Professor of Urban Design at Newcastle University, UK"

Author Information

Marek Kozlowski is currently a Senior Lecturer and Master of Tropical Urban Design Program Coordinator at the Faculty of Design and Architecture, University Putra Malaysia. He has worked as an urban designer on several key projects in Australia, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Poland. He has conducted visiting lectures at universities in Australia, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Thailand and Poland. He has written several publications in the field of urban design and planning including a book Urban Design: Shaping the Attractiveness of the Urban Environment with the End-Users. Asma Mehan is the current Postdoctoral research associate at CITTA (research center for territory, transports, and environment) at the University of Porto, Portugal. She is an editor at Architectural Histories, the open-access journal of the European Architectural History Network (EAHN) and active member of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP). Krzysztof Nawratek is a Senior Lecturer in Humanities and Architecture at the University of Sheffield, UK. He is an author of City as a Political Idea (2011), Holes in the Whole. Introduction to urban revolutions (2012), Radical Inclusivity. Architecture and Urbanism (ed. 2015), Urban Re-Industrialisation (ed. 2017) and Total Urban Mobilisation. Ernst Junger and Postcapitalist City (2018).

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