Reluctant Capital: Essays on Kuala Lumpur is a compact collection of essays on Malaysia's capital—a city that keeps building forward while never quite settling on what it wants to be.
About This Book
Badrul Hisham Ismail reads Kuala Lumpur through the forces that have made it: state-led developmentalism, neoliberal reform and the politics of ethnic governance. Pairing critical urban theory with close, on-the-ground research, the essays move between masterplans that were drawn up and abandoned, megaprojects that drew public contest, and the communities pushed aside along the way. Set against the official story of progress, the result is a portrait of a capital in constant negotiation, where questions of belonging remain unsettled for many of the people who live there.
Key Features
- Essays that combine critical urban theory with grounded field research
- A sustained focus on how policy and power translate into urban form
- Attention to displaced and marginalised communities alongside official narratives
- A pocket-sized format suited to reading on the move
What You'll Discover
- How developmentalism, neoliberal reform and ethnic governance have shaped Kuala Lumpur
- The afterlives of abandoned masterplans and contested megaprojects
- Where the city's inequalities are written into its streets and buildings
- A grounded counterpoint to official accounts of progress
About the Author
Badrul Hisham Ismail is a Malaysian independent researcher and arts practitioner whose work crosses urban policy, democracy and storytelling, with a particular interest in inequality and everyday city life in Southeast Asia. He has led work on housing reform, made documentary and fiction films, and co-founded Svara magazine.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Dimensions: 110 × 180 mm
- Pages: 136
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9786299998556
- Publisher: Suburbia Projects
Perfect For: readers interested in Southeast Asian cities, urban politics and planning, and anyone who wants to look past the skyline of Kuala Lumpur.