War, in the broadest sense, is a battle about the power to define and definitions, that are not carried out at the center of words but at their very margins. But what can words do, as soon as the state of war has become a rule and a normality worldwide?

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”?