This study is a concise introduction to Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory and its application in a literary analysis of urban narratives of the 21st century. We encounter well-known psycho-geographers such as Iain Sinclair and Sam Miller, and renowned authors, Patrick Neate and Suketu Mehta. Prachi More analyses these authors' accounts of vastly different cities such as London, Delhi, Mumbai, Johannesburg, New York and Tokyo. Are these urban narratives a contemporary solution to documenting an ever-evasive urban reality? If so, how do they embody "matters of concern" as Latour would have put it, laying bare modern-day "actors" and "networks" rather than reporting mere "matters of fact"? These questions are drawn into an inter-disciplinary discussion that addresses concerns and questions of epistemology, the sociology of knowledge as well as urban and documentary studies.

Provides a comparative treatment and examination of how new approaches in governance and planning are reshaping mega-city regions around the world. The contributors highlight how European mega-city regions are evolving and strategic intervention redefined to enable the integration of urban qualities in a multi-level governance environment, how traditional federal countries in North America and Australia see the promise of major policies and development initiatives finally moving ahead to herald a more strategic intervention at national and regional scales, and how transitional economies in China witness the rise of state strategies to control the articulation of scales and to reassert the functional importance of state in a growing diffused power context.

Exploring the importance of megacities and megacity-regions as one of the defining features of the 21st century, this Handbook provides a clear and comprehensive overview of current thinking and debates from leading scholars in the field. Highlighting major current challenges and dimensions of megaurbanization, chapters form a thematic focus on governance, planning, history, and environmental and social issues, supported by case studies from every continent.

World cities are reaching previously inconceivable sizes and populations. For the last fifteen years, The Megacities Foundation has encouraged public debate on this development, uniting practitioners from the fields of architecture, economics, geography, sociology and urban planning. This book offers a compilation of the Foundation's best lectures, defining megacities and their processes and systems.

As a result of global dynamics--the increasing interconnection of people and places--innovations in global environmental governance haved altered the role of cities in shaping the future of the planet. This book is a timely study of the importance of these social transformations in our increasingly global and increasingly urban world. Through analysis of transnational municipal networks, such as Metropolis and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Sofie Bouteligier's innovative study examines theories of the network society and global cities from a global ecology perspective. Through direct observation and interviews and using two types of city networks that have been treated separately in the literature, she discovers the structure and logic pertaining to office networks of environmental non-governmental organizations and environmental consultancy firms. In doing so she incisively demonstrates the ways in which cities fulfill the role of strategic sites of global environmental governance, concentrating knowledge, infrastructure, and institutions vital to the function of transnational actors.

This book sheds light on the mega-city region development in China as a new form of urbanization which plays a crucial role in the economic development of the country. It examines the challenges faced by the mega-city regions and opens up avenues for debates and further research. Economic reform of 1978 has led to an unprecedented growth in the population and economic development of China. A large portion of this increased urban population and the corresponding economic growth has been concentrated in the mega-city regions, such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH), Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and Pearl River Delta (PRD). These three mega-city regions have less land but more people and thus higher economy, resulting in various issues and challenges faced by these regions. These challenges pertain to the socio-economic development, transport, environment, governance and development strategy, which this book explores through case studies of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Wuhan. This book also explains and analyses the economy, migration processes, transport development, environmental conditions and governance of the mega-city regions of China. With an overview of China’s rapid urbanisation and the consequent economic growth, this book provides an essential understanding of related issues in order to establish appropriate strategies and policies to sustain the process of mega-city region development.

A new 21st century urban phenomenon is emerging: the networked polycentric mega-city region. Developed around one or more cities of global status, it is characterized by a cluster of cities and towns, physically separate but intensively networked in a complex spatial division of labour. This book describes and analyses eight such regions in North West Europe. For the first time, this work shows how businesses interrelate and communicate in geographical space - within each region, between them, and with the wider world. It goes on to demonstrate the profound consequences for spatial planning and regional development in Europe - and, by implication, other similar urban regions of the world. The Polycentric Metropolis introduces the concept of a mega-city region, analyses its characteristics, examines the issues surrounding regional identities, and discusses policy ramifications and outcomes for infrastructure, transport systems and regulation. Packed with high quality maps, case study data and written in a clear style by highly experienced authors, this will be an insightful and significant analysis suitable for professionals in urban planning and policy, environmental consultancies, business and investment communities, technical libraries, and students in urban studies, geography, economics and town/spatial planning.

In the last few decades, many European and American cities and towns experienced economic, social and spatial structural change. Strategies for urban regeneration include investments in infrastructures for production, consumption and communication, as well as marketing and branding measures, and urban design schemes. Bringing together leading academics from across a range of disciplines, including Douglas Kelbaugh, Ali Madanipour, Saskia Sassen, Gregory Ashworth, Nan Elin, Emily Talen, and many others, Emergent Urbanism identifies the specific issues dominating today’s urban planning and urban design discourse, arguing that urban planning and design not only results from deliberate planning and design measures, but how these combine with infrastructure planning, and derive from economic, social and spatial processes of structural change. Combining explorations from urban planning, urban theory, human geography, sociology, urban design and architecture, the volume provides a comprehensive and state-of-the-art overview, highlighting the complexities of these interactions in space and place, process and design.

"This book explores military operations, including indirect support to other interagency actors and functions in dense urban terrain and megacities. Dense urban terrain describes urban areas with high population densities that, in the developing world, often outstrip the capacity of local governance systems to exert formal control. The term megacity describes a city with a population of 10 million or more. These environments define patterns of human settlement. In 1950, only 30 percent of the world's population lived in cities compared to more than 55 percent in 2018. Much of this growth is concentrated in large, urban centers that connect a global flow of goods and ideas. By 2030, there will be more than 40 of these megacities"--

Climate Health Risks in Megacities: Sustainable Management and Strategic Planning courageously confronts the immense challenges of alleviating climate change and takes the initiative to layout an agenda that calls for action in the rapidly changing landscape of our global climate. This guide provides a constructive methodology for developing and implementing risk management and operational continuity management systems to climate change effects on urban populations. It addresses key issues such as physical location, proper sanitation, food security and vector-borne diseases against the backdrop of climate change, and then model its effect on the urban dwellers. The author also reveals the benefits of implementing a unique risk management approach to combat global threats and focuses on building urban resilience in the face of disasters. Prepared with a comprehensive and forward-thinking style, this book draws on indispensable case studies in key megacities like New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, London, Mumbai, and Lagos, and links researchers, scientists, city’s mayors, environmentalists, policy-makers and world leaders from central areas to review, reflect, and expound on future directions.