I am both pleased and honored to introduce this book to readers, and I want to take a few moments to explain why. Michael Romanos and Christopher Auffrey have produced a volume which will be of immense value to several different types of people. Planners and other specialists concerned with the development of the Southeast Asian region and the issues and opportunities associated with urban growth and sustainable development will find much to interest them in this book. But the book, I believe, has much wider appeal, and that is what I want to touch on briefly here. The University of Cincinnati, where Michael, Chris, and I work, is attempting to globalize itself - to develop its institutional capacity for international activities, to infuse its curriculum with international themes, and to promote and increase global competence among its graduates. Many American universities are doing this, of course. In the process, we are seeing some very interesting experiments in pedagogy, as faculty look for "learning moments" in new and sometimes exotic places. Michael, Chris, and their colleagues have, it seems to me, developed an outstanding model for learning across national and cultural boundaries. In the chapters which follow, you will read the results of their work. What will be less apparent, however, is the process by which that work was produced.

In a rapidly urbanizing and globalized world, cities have been the epicentres of COVID-19 (coronavirus). The virus has spread to virtually all parts of the world; first, among globally connected cities, then through community transmission and from the city to the countryside. This report shows that the intrinsic value of sustainable urbanization can and should be harnessed for the wellbeing of all. It provides evidence and policy analysis of the value of urbanization from an economic, social and environmental perspective. It also explores the role of innovation and technology, local governments, targeted investments and the effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda in fostering the value of sustainable urbanization.

Literature survey on migration policies relating to internal migration in developing countries - covers the effect of demographic aspects and economic conditions, and educational level on rural migration patterns, and analyses the impact of fertility level on urban development. References and statistical tables.

Providing a fresh examination of the nature of Third World development, the author focuses on the characteristics of particular places and regions and their influences on behaviour. This is an important study of the relationship between population movements and regional and national changes.

This study represents a new generation of inquiry that attempts to gain a better understanding of smaller urban places in the remote and frontier regions in Southeast Asia. A set of intriguing hypotheses attempting to unravel the complicated relationships between population movements and employment opportunities as they relate to the growth of certain urban places and the rural hinterland have been posited. The study is aimed at illuminating the processes of urbanization and development in North Sumatra Province of Indonesia and the Central Visayas and Northern Mindanao regions of the Philippines.