ABSTRACT

The renaissance in urban theory draws directly from a fresh focus on the neglected realities of cities beyond the west and embraces the global south as the epicentre of urbanism. This Handbook engages the complex ways in which cities of the global south and the global north are rapidly shifting, the imperative for multiple genealogies of knowledge production, as well as a diversity of empirical entry points to understand contemporary urban dynamics.

The Handbook works towards a geographical realignment in urban studies, bringing into conversation a wide array of cities across the global south – the ‘ordinary’, ‘mega’, ‘global’ and ‘peripheral’. With interdisciplinary contributions from a range of leading international experts, it profiles an emergent and geographically diverse body of work. The contributions draw on conflicting and divergent debates to open up discussion on the meaning of the city in, or of, the global south; arguments that are fluid and increasingly contested geographically and conceptually. It reflects on critical urbanism, the macro- and micro-scale forces that shape cities, including ideological, demographic and technological shifts, and constantly changing global and regional economic dynamics. Working with southern reference points, the chapters present themes in urban politics, identity and environment in ways that (re)frame our thinking about cities. The Handbook engages the twenty-first-century city through a ‘southern urban’ lens to stimulate scholarly, professional and activist engagements with the city.

chapter |4 pages

‘From the South'

part I|65 pages

Critical urbanism

chapter 2|2 pages

Critical Urbanism

chapter 3|12 pages

Worlding the South

Toward a post-colonial urban theory

chapter 6|9 pages

Disseminating ‘Best Practice'?

The coloniality of urban knowledge and city models

chapter 7|14 pages

New Geographies of Theorizing the Urban

Putting comparison to work for global urban studies

part II|67 pages

The urban: past, present, future

chapter 8|2 pages

The Urban

Past, present, future

chapter 9|11 pages

Shaping Cities of the Global South

Legal histories of planning and colonialism

chapter 10|12 pages

Troubling Continuities

Use and utility of the term ‘slum'

chapter 11|11 pages

Learning Planning from the South

Ideas from the new urban frontiers

chapter 12|13 pages

Urban Land Markets

A southern exposure

part III|113 pages

Global economic turbulence: (re)configuring the urban

chapter 14|2 pages

Global Economic Turbulence

(Re)configuring the urban

chapter 16|18 pages

Steering, Speeding, Scaling

China's model of urban growth and its implications for cities of the global south

chapter 19|13 pages

Re-Evaluating the Influence of Urban Agglomeration in Sub-Saharan Africa

Population density, technological innovation and productivity

chapter 20|17 pages

The Urban Informal Economy

Enhanced knowledge, appropriate policies and effective organization

chapter 21|17 pages

Digital Dynamics

New technologies and work transformations in African cities

part IV|83 pages

Politics, transformation and the southern city

chapter 23|12 pages

Substantiating Urban Democracy

The importance of popular representation and transformative democratic politics

chapter 24|12 pages

The Politics of the Urban Everyday in Cairo

Infrastructures of oppositional action

chapter 25|15 pages

Claiming ‘Rights' in the African City

Popular mobilization and the politics of informality

chapter 26|13 pages

The Urban Poor and Strategies for a Pro-Poor Politics

Reflections on shack/slum dwellers international

chapter 28|15 pages

The Missing People

Reflections on an urban majority in cities of the south

part V|91 pages

Negotiating society and identity in urban spaces of the south

chapter 31|14 pages

Contentious Identities?

Urban space, cityness and citizenship

chapter 33|11 pages

Spaces of Difference

Challenging urban divisions from the north to the south

chapter 34|17 pages

Hip Hop Politics

Recognizing southern complexity

chapter 35|16 pages

Gender is Still the Battleground

Youth, cultural production and the remaking of public space in São Paulo

part VI|109 pages

Conceptualizing the built environment: accounting for southern urban complexities

chapter 36|3 pages

Conceptualizing the Built Environment

Accounting for southern urban complexities

chapter 37|14 pages

Regulating Service Delivery in Southern Cities

Rethinking urban heterogeneity

chapter 39|15 pages

Urban Mobilities

Innovation and diffusion in public transport

chapter 41|19 pages

The New Divided City?

Planning and ‘gray space' between global north-west and south-east

chapter 42|16 pages

Gentrification in the Global South?