Third World Cities

Containing a wealth of student-friendly features this text provides an invaluable introduction to the issues and processes of the city in the Third World.

Originally published in 1986, this book focusses on life within global cities in the developing world, analysing on a city-level the circulation and consumption of goods and services within them. When the book was first published it was one of only a few to offer systematic comparative analyses of developing world cities, and those stemming from different regions, with examples from different continents in each chapter. It discusses the problems faced by such city populations and shows how the procedures, distributive systems and social conventions reflect the complex histories of the cities, most of which have been subject to colonial rule, and of their inhabitants, many of whom are either migrants or first generation citizens.

It took New York City (the world′s largest metropolis in 1950) nearly a century and a half to expand by eight million residents. Mexico City and Sao Paulo will match this growth in less than fifteen years. Asia′s mega-cities, too, are exploding in number and size. This kind of unprecedented growth is being echoed in the urban centers of developing nations around the globe. The essays in this volume address the wide array of problematic issues--as well as the opportunities and advantages--that are the natural outgrowth of such rapid urbanization. Third World Cities examines three sets of vital issues. Drawing on the experience and evidence of the past two decades, the book′s initial chapters assess theoretical frameworks upon which urban and migration policies are based. The authors of the middle section press for fresh approaches to the increasing demands placed on institutions and individuals in the largest cities of the developing world. The final chapters examine the complex demographic, social, and economic processes of urban growth. Students, professionals, and policymakers in development and urban studies, public administration, sociology, political science and comparative politics, geography, and ethnic studies will find Third World Cities to be a refreshing and innovative look at this growing concern. "Third World Cities offers a range of new ideas on the demographic, social spatial, and environmental changes that are `occurring so quickly that up-to-date evidence is elusive′ . . . Third World Cities is both thought-provoking and highly readable." -The Economic Times

This imformative book is a thoroughly revised and updated edition of the classic introduction to urbanization in developing areas. Using case studies of cities drawn from around the world, including Bangkok, Delhi, Manila, Mexico City, Singapore and cities in Zimbabwe, this key text confronts three main questions: Is there still a Third World, does it have a common urban form, and what is the relationship between urbanization and sustainability? The text analyzes: the dimension of urban growth in the third world historical perspectives on urban growth urban population growth employment and incomes in the city basic needs and human rights environmental problems in third world cities planning and management of cities. Containing a wealth of student-friendly features including boxed case-studies, discussion questions and guides for further reading, this text provides an invaluable introduction to the issues and processes of the city in the Third World. Containing a greater depth of content and referencing, and with new chapters and subjects covered, this new second edition utilizes its larger format to make extensive use of illustrations, diagrams, global case studies, and further reading. Overall, these changes have contributed to this book's continuance as an extremely accessible student text.

The City in the Developing World is a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to urbanisation in developing countries. The goal of this text is to place an understanding of the developing world city in its wider global context. First, this is done by developing the concept of social surplus product as a key to understanding the character of the contemporary Third World city. Second, throughout this text, the city in developing areas is centrally placed in the context of global, social, economic, political and cultural change. Thus, the important themes of globalisation, modernity and postmodernity are examined both in relation to the structure of sets of towns and cities which make up the national or regional urban system, and in respect of ideas and concepts dealing with the morphology, structure and social patterning of individual urban areas. The City in the Developing World is a core text for second and third year undergraduates in the fields of geography, development studies, planning, economics and the social sciences, taking options which deal with development issues, development theory, gender and development and Third World development.

Haldia situated at Midnapore District of West Bengal, India.

First published in 2006. Despite the growing significance of the Third World and the critical nature of its urbanization, there are few synthetic books covering more than one region of the Third World which can be used either by scholars seeking an overview of the process of world urbanization or by students in the growing number of courses now being offered in the field of comparative urbanism. The most distressing problem was that the field of urbanization, particularly with reference to developing countries, seemed to us to have stagnated at theoretically-sterile conceptualizations or, even worse, had deteriorated into fragmented empirical-descriptive reports, whether observing with sympathy or noting with alarm the rapidly declining condition of individual cities. This book attempts to rectify this deficiency.

Cities within the developing world experience a form of urban development which is different to those in more industrialised countries. Rates of growth are usually much more dramatic, housing and transport are often provided informally, and institutional support for urban management is also much weaker. The crux of this book, first published in 1990, lies in the idea that urban transport planning cannot be viewed in isolation from this wider development context. Making special reference to a number of countries, including Brazil, India and Indonesia, chapters discuss problems of urban transport planning, deficiencies in the theory and practice of conventional transport planning, and the emerging alternatives in the countries under examination. This work addresses problems that are still of great concern to urban policy planners, professionals and academics, as well as students from the fields of development studies, urban geography and planning, architecture and civil engineering.