By many estimates, the world has recently crossed the point where more than half the global population is urban, a trend driven by rapid urbanization in developing countries. Urban centres offer economies of scale in terms of productive enterprise and public investment. Cities are social melting pots, centres of innovation, and drivers of social change. However, cities are also marked by social differentiation, poverty, conflict, and environmental degradation. These are all issues that not only matter to cities, but also lie at the heart of development. As such, the time is right to consider afresh the relationship between cities and development. This volume presents a significant new collection of multidisciplinary papers focused on urbanization and its implications for development. It raises four questions: What is so special about the urban context? Why is urbanization and urban growth important to development at the present conjuncture? What are the strengths and limitations of our current state of knowledge about urbanization and development from the policy perspective? How can a multidisciplinary perspective on the urban context add value to development research and policy? Leading scholars in urban economics examine the data and definitions associated with the field, and look in-depth at the economic and social consequences of urbanization. Special focus is given to urban violence, and planning and governance issues, and the text is supplemented by case studies demonstrating the recent effects of urbanization in key countries such as India, Brazil, Tanzania, Lebanon, and South Africa.

Urbanization and Development: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (WIDER Studies in Development Economics)

Business & Money

Kanbur, Ravi

Beall, Jo

Guha-Khasnobis, Basudeb

Economics

Oxford University Press

By 2030 more than sixty percent of the world's population will live in urban areas, with most of the world’s population growth over the next twenty-five years being absorbed by cities and towns in low and middle income countries. What are the consequences of this shift? Demographic pressure already strains the capacity of local and national governments to manage urban change. Today, nearly one billion people live in slums, and in the absence of significant intervention that number is set to double in the next two decades. Will our future be dominated by mega-cities of poverty and despair, or can urbanization be harnessed to advance human and economic development? Cities and Development provides a critical exploration of the dynamic relationship between urbanism and development. Highlighting both the challenges and opportunities associated with rapid urban change, the book surveys: <ul>
<li>the historical relationship between urbanization and development</li> <li>the role cities play in fostering economic growth in a globalizing world</li> <li>the unique characteristics of urban poverty and the poor record of interventions designed to tackle it </li> <li>the complexities of managing urban environments; issues of urban crime, violence, war and terrorism in contemporary cities </li> <li>the importance of urban planning, governance and politics in shaping city futures. </li>
</ul>
This book brings into conversation debates from urban and development studies and highlights the strengths and weaknesses of current policy and planning responses to the contemporary urban challenge. It includes research orientated supplements in the form of summaries, boxed case studies, development questions and further reading. The book is intended for senior undergraduate and graduate students interested in urban, international and development studies, as well as policy-makers and planners concerned with equitable and sustainable urban development.

Cities and Development (Routledge Perspectives on Development) (Volume 1)

Fox, Sean

History

Routledge

Cities and Development (Routledge Perspectives on Development)

Meadowlands Dawn

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Epoque Press

International development is replete with examples of failure. This has led to notes of cynicism being struck in commentaries on development, whether in relation to failed states, donor ineptitude or the unaccountability of NGOs. Precisely because the grand visions have not been realized and macro-level policies have been so controversial, attention turned to initiatives at the local level. However, too many expectations were placed on interventions at the local level and it did not take long before they became formalized, institutionalized and bureaucratized, losing their capacity for rapid response and flexibility. This book is about an alternative approach. Starting from a critical engagement with theories of decentralization and a review of social funds, it explores the value of funding local initiatives that are designed not only to support development activities but also to promote local democracy. Reviewing experiences from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, the book demonstrates how, at their most innovative, local funds can deliver development within the context of a rights-based approach and as a critical component of democratic decentralization. Funding Local Governance will appeal to academic, professional and practitioner audiences. It will be of considerable value to people working in international development agencies, NGOs and in local government. It will be of interest to researchers, teachers and students of development, urban studies, local government and politics, geography and urban planning as well as area studies specialists.

Funding Local Governance: Small grants for democracy and development (Urban Management Series)

Business Development & Entrepreneurship

ITDG Publishing

Uniting a Divided City: Governance and Social Exclusion in Johannesburg

For many, Johannesburg resembles the imagined spectre of the urban future. Global anxieties about catastrophic urban explosion, social fracture, environmental degradation, escalating crime and violence, and rampant consumerism alongside grinding poverty, are projected onto this city as a microcosm of things to come. Decision-makers in cities worldwide have attempted to balance harsh fiscal and administrative realities with growing demands for political, economic and social justice. This book investigates pragmatic approaches to urban economic development, service delivery, spatial restructuring, environmental sustainability and institutional reform in Johannesburg. It explores the conditions and processes that are determining the city's transformation into a cosmopolitan metropole and magnet for the continent.

Uniting a Divided City

Reference

Parnell, Susan

Crankshaw, Owen

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