The Routledge Handbook on Cities of the Global South / Edition 1

by Susan Parnell, Sophie Oldfield

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415818650
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/27/2014
Pages:	658
Product dimensions:	7.44(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Susan Parnell is an Urban Geographer in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science and also serves on the Executive of the African Centre for Cities, both at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Sophie Oldfield is a Geographer and Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Table of Contents

1. From the South Part 1: Critical Urbanism 2. Critical Urbanism3. Worlding the South: Toward a Postcolonial Urban Theory 4. Grounding Southern City Theory in Time and Place 5. Is There a ‘South’ Perspective to Urban Studies? 6. Disseminating ‘Best Practice’? The Coloniality of Urban Knowledge and City Models New Geographies of Theorizing the Urban: Putting Comparison to Work for Global Urban Studies Part 2: The Urban: Past, Present, Future 8. The Urban: Past, Present, Future 9. Shaping Cities of the Global South: Legal Histories of Planning and Colonialism 10. Troubling Continuities: Use and Utility of the Term ‘Slum’ 11. Learning Planning From the South: Ideas from the New Urban Frontiers 12. Urban Land Markets: A Southern Exposure 13. The Urbanization/Development Nexus in the BRICS Part 3: Global Economic Turbulence: (Re)configuring the Urban 14. Global Economic Turbulence: (Re)configuring the Urban 15. Globalizing Capitalism and Southern Urbanization 16. Steering, Speeding, Scaling: China’s Model of Urban Growth and its Implications for Cities of the Global South 17. Does African Urban Policy Provide a Platform for Sustained Economic Growth? 18. Disjunctures between Urban Infrastructure, Finance and Affordability 19. Re-Evaluating the Influence of Urban Agglomeration in Sub-Saharan Africa: Population Density, Technological Innovation and Productivity 20. The Urban Informal Economy: Enhanced Knowledge, Appropriate Policies and Effective Organization 21. Digital Dynamics: New Technologies and Work Transformations in African Cities Part 4: Politics, Transformation and the Southern City 22. Politics, Transformation and the Southern City 23. Substantiating Urban Democracy: The Importance of Popular Representation and Transformative Democratic Politics 24. The Politics of the Urban Everyday in Cairo: Infrastructures of Oppositional Action 25. Claiming ‘Rights’ in the African City: Popular Mobilization and the Politics of Informality in Nairobi, Casablanca, Johannesburg and Cape Town 26. The Urban Poor and Strategies for a Pro-Poor Politics: Reflections on Shack/Slum Dwellers International 27. Occupancy Urbanism as Political Practice 28. The Missing People: Reflections on an Urban Majority in Cities of the South Part 5: Negotiating Society and Identity in Urban Spaces of the South 29. Negotiating Society and Identity in Urban Spaces of the South 30. Conviviality and the Boundaries of Citizenship in Urban Africa 31. Contentious Identities? Urban Space, Cityness and Citizenship 32. The Place of Migrant Women and the Role of Gender in the Cities of Asia 33. Spaces of Difference: Challenging Urban Divisions from the North to the South 34. Hip-Hop Politics: Recognizing Southern Complexity 35. Gender is Still the Battleground: Youth, Cultural Production, and the Remaking of Public Space in São Paulo Part 6: Conceptualizing the Built Environment: Accounting for Southern Urban Complexities 36. Conceptualizing the Built Environment: Accounting for Southern Urban Complexities 37. Regulating Service Delivery in Southern Cities: Rethinking Urban Heterogeneity 38. The Politics and Technologies of Urban Waste 39. Urban Mobilities: Innovation and Diffusion in Public Transport 40. Urban Fragmentation, ‘Good Governance’ and the Emergence of the Competitive City 41. The New Divided City? Planning and ‘Gray Space’ Between Global North-West and South-East 42. Gentrification in the Global South? 43. Peri-Urbanization and the Political Ecology of Differential Sustainability Part 7: Big Stories of Urban Change 44. Big Stories of Urban Change 45. Approaching Food Security in Cities of the Global South 46. Healthy Cities of/from the South 47. Urban Poverty in Low-and Middle-Income Nations 48. Migration, Urbanization and Changing Gender Relations in the South 49. Urban Metabolism of the Global South 50. Urban Dynamics and the Challenges of Global Environmental Change in the South

Editorial Reviews

"In all, this collection offers a stimulating and provocative set of essays which highlight both the prosaic empirical aspects of urban development in cities of the south, as well as offering critical engagement with relatively new debates." – Melanie Lombard, University of Manchester

"Parnell and Oldfield have done well to assemble a varied and erudite group of academics and practitioners for this book. While this is chiefly an academic publication, it would be of interest to a reader wishing to understand more about the dynamics of southern cities and the debates and issues that are central to this element of the urban. It is a well-written and comprehensive anthology." – R.T. Massey, Urban Forum

From the Publisher