MM Srdjan, you have been involved in many projects that are based on the notion of participatory structures becoming a generative tool of spatial practice. Although most of your work is concentrating on the territory of the Western Balkans, it resists being localizable partly because your theoretical backbone engenders a universality of approach as to the way in which the positive aspects of your findings can be applied to other areas and practices. Can you please introduce your main thesis?

“The disappearance of class identities and the end of the bipolar system of confrontation have rendered conventional politics obsolete. Consensus finally reigns with respect to the basic institutions of society, and the lack of any legitimate alternative means that this consensus will not be challenged.”
(Chantal Mouffe)

“In contrast to cooperation, collaboration is driven by complex realities rather than romantic notions of a common ground or commonality. It is an ambivalent process constituted by a set of paradoxical relationships between co-producers who affect each other.”

In December 2006, London-based architect and writer Markus Miessen went to meet political theorist and Professor of Political Theory Chantal Mouffe. In a series of conversations at Westminster, he used his current investigation into ‘conflict- and non-consensus-based forms of participation as a form of alternative spatial practice’ as a starting point to question Mouffe about democratic life and her understanding of what she calls ‘conflictual consensus’.

Markus Miessen
Chantal, you have written extensively on the struggle of politics and the radical heart of democratic life. Could you please explain to us the main thesis of your latest book “On the Political”?