The Neutrality Between “Us” and “Others”, a Framework for Sustainable Social/Cultural Urban Development

A conceptual theoretical manifestation of “Us/Others” relationship could be traced in fields like identity, where a demarcated boundary is somehow apparent, and societal inclusion of minorities. However, the paper perceives the “Us” and “Others” relationship as a persistent epistemological and psychological relationship that needs explanation. “Us” can’t exist apart from the “Others”. “Others” is not necessarily a person; it is whatsoever beyond “Us”. Consequently, the paper recognizes the “Us/Others” relationship as a point of departure and as an essential step for the achievement of a universal unifying whole that disregards boundaries and sets a common platform of communication that sustains everyone’s conception of Urbanism. For such a universal whole to exist, the boundaries between “Us” and “Others” need to diminish into neutrality. Such neutrality would be conducted based on the abstract understanding of both of “Us” and “Others”. Otherness is a kind of enrichment of the universal whole rather than a weakening factor, and it could be the missing soul of Globalization. As a matter of fact, the universal whole is a monolithic meaning of infinite Otherness’s shapes. During the paper, Otherness would be handled as a tool of analysis for instrumenting the cultural/social sustainable metropolitan/urban transformations. Otherness would be analytically represented as hierarchical instances of the structured continuum of Urbanism, which is disclosed by a specially devised comprehensive tool of analysis. Such monolithic representation of Urbanism and their analytical instances constitute the proposed framework and is expected to comparatively and coherently support the top-down and bottom-up neutral urban analyses and interventions. The paper would firstly exhaust the metaphysical definition of “Us” and “Others”, then secondly would present the possible intervening policies for promoting neutrality as the universal form of Urbanism.