Arabic Social Theory in Japanese and Indonesian: Transregional Ideoscapes of the Long 1960s

The argument of this chapter relates to the trajectory from deconstruction to construction. It embraces a form of “writing against the naksa” rather than addressing Arabic social theory from a particular disciplinary angle. With regard to the language that theories are presented in, I claim that Arabic social theory may also be reflected in, for instance, the Malaysian or Indonesian, if not in the Chinese or Japanese language(s). This is based on a view from the perspective of Indian Ocean littoral states, which formed a region of vast connectivity in historic times, and still do so today. Indonesian social theory, written in Indonesian language and referring to Arabic sources, is nothing unusual. The discussion hence suggests asking broader questions and lifting the quest of social theory concepts from exclusively Arabic concepts to an inclusion of what shows the connectivity and the mutual impact of exchange across regions and seas. With this approach, it also encourages researchers to integrate transregional perspectives into their reflection on social theory, and to look at (conceptual as well as geographical) maps that put the Arab world into the center. Cases in point discussed in the paper are the ideoscapes that formed in the 1970s and 1980s between Southeast Asia and the Middle East on the one hand, and Japan and the Middle East on the other.