With the emphasis on market-led development initiatives, sustainable urbanization is a challenge, especially in growing nations. Regional administrative efforts are crucial for cities to meet the planned city operations and specific targets and objectives. The Handbook of Research on Urban Governance and Management in the Developing World is a research publication that explores contemporary issues in regional political and administrative practices and key challenges in implementing these strategies in growing nations. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics such as urban and regional economics, supply chain management, and environmental concerns, this book is geared toward city development planners, policy makers, researchers, academics, and students seeking current and relevant research on the regional bureaucracy and its practices and how they affect growing nations.

Over the next 20 years, most low-income countries will, for the first time, become more urban than rural. Understanding demographic trends in the cities of the developing world is critical to those countries - their societies, economies, and environments. The benefits from urbanization cannot be overlooked, but the speed and sheer scale of this transformation presents many challenges. In this uniquely thorough and authoritative volume, 16 of the world's leading scholars on urban population and development have worked together to produce the most comprehensive and detailed analysis of the changes taking place in cities and their implications and impacts. They focus on population dynamics, social and economic differentiation, fertility and reproductive health, mortality and morbidity, labor force, and urban governance. As many national governments decentralize and devolve their functions, the nature of urban management and governance is undergoing fundamental transformation, with programs in poverty alleviation, health, education, and public services increasingly being deposited in the hands of untested municipal and regional governments. Cities Transformed identifies a new class of policy maker emerging to take up the growing responsibilities. Drawing from a wide variety of data sources, many of them previously inaccessible, this essential text will become the benchmark for all involved in city-level research, policy, planning, and investment decisions. The National Research Council is a private, non-profit institution based in Washington, DC, providing services to the US government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The editors are members of the Council's Panel on Urban Population Dynamics.

The world development institutions commonly present 'urban governance' as an antidote to the so-called 'urbanisation of poverty' and 'parasitic urbanism' in Africa. Governance for Pro-Poor Urban Development is a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the meaning, nature, and effects of 'urban governance' in theory and in practice, with a focus on Ghana, a country widely regarded as an island of good governance in the sub region. The book illustrates how diverse groups experience urban governance differently and contextualizes how this experience has worsened social differentiation in cities. This book will be of great interest to students, teachers, and researchers in development studies, and highly relevant to anyone with an interest in urban studies, geography, political economy, sociology, and African studies.

Poverty and governance are both issues high on the agenda of international agencies and governments in the South. With urban areas accounting for a steadily growing share of the world's poor people, an international team of researchers focused their attention on the hitherto little-studied relationship between urban governance and urban poverty. In their timely and in-depth examination of ten cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, they demonstrate that in many countries the global trends towards decentralization and democratization offer new opportunities for the poor to have an influence on the decisions that affect them. They also show how that influence depends on the nature of those democratic arrangements and decision-making processes at the local level, as well as on the ability of the poor to organize. The study involved interviews with key actors within and outside city governments, discussions with poverty groups, community organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as analyses of data on poverty, services and finance. This book presents insights, conclusions and practical examples that are of relevance for other cities. It outlines policy implications for national and local governments, NGOs and donor agencies, and highlights ways in which poor people can use their voice to influence the various institutions of city governance.

The relationship between citizens and city governments is gradually transforming due to the utilization of advanced information and communication technologies in order to inform, consult, and engage citizens. Citizen E-Participation in Urban Governance: Crowdsourcing and Collaborative Creativity explores the nature of the new challenges confronting citizens and local governments in the field of urban governance. This comprehensive reference source explores the role that Web 2.0 technologies play in promoting citizen participation and empowerment in the city government and is intended for scholars, researchers, students, and practitioners in the field of urban studies, urban planning, political science, public administration, and more.

Direct democracy, or pure democracy, is a concept spreading throughout the world, now adopted by nearly 30 countries on the national level. While the concept is not new, it is important to investigate the current benefits or hinderances of direct democracy related to local governments so that they may be implemented further. Direct Democracy Practices at the Local Level deepens the knowledge of direct democracy in political science. This book explores how local governments utilize these instruments in international governments and analyzes a series of popular initiatives and local referenda to how successful these initiatives are. Covering topics such as religious rights, street committees, and climate change, this book is essential for political science students and professors, policymakers, faculty, local governments, academicians, and researchers in political science with an interest in direct democracy procedures in representative systems.

Throughout history, humanity has sought the betterment of its communities. In the 21st century, humanity has technology on its side in the process of improving its cities. Smart cities make their improvements by gathering real-world data in real time. Still, there are many complexities that many do not catch—they are invisible. It is important to understand how people make sense at the urban level and in extra-urban spaces of the combined complexities of invisibilities and visibilities in their environments, interactions, and infrastructures enabled through their own enhanced awareness together with aware technologies that are often embedded, pervasive, and ambient. This book probes the visible and invisible dimensions of emerging understandings of smart cities and regions in the context of more aware people interacting with each other and through more aware and pervasive technologies. Visibilities and Invisibilities in Smart Cities: Emerging Research and Opportunities contributes to the research literature for urban theoretical spaces, methodologies, and applications for smart and responsive cities; the evolving of urban theory and methods for 21st century cities and urbanities; and the formulation of a conceptual framework for associated methodologies and theoretical spaces. This work explores the relationships between variables using a case study approach combined with an explanatory correlational design. It is based on an urban research study conducted from mid-2015 to mid-2020 that spanned multiple countries across three continents. The book is split into four sections: introduction to the concepts of visible and invisible, frameworks for understanding the interplay of the two concepts, associated and evolving theory and methods, and extending current research as opportunities in smart city environments and regions. Covering topics including human geography, smart cities, and urban planning, this book is essential for urban planners, designers, city officials, community agencies, business managers and owners, academicians, researchers, and students, including those who work across multiple domains such as architecture, environmental design, human-computer interaction, human geography, information technology, sociology, and affective computing.

This book examines the challenges of urbanization in the global south and the linkages between urbanization, economic development and urban poverty from the perspectives of cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It focuses on various aspects of urbanization ranging from food security and public services like sanitation, water and electricity to the finances of cities and externalities associated with the urbanization process. The volume also highlights the importance of participatory urban governance for cities in India with comparative perspectives from other countries. It further focuses on the urbanization of poverty, livelihood in urban areas, overconsumption and nutrition and ecology. Based on primary data, the chapters in the volume review trends, opportunities, challenges, governance and strategies of several countries at different levels of urbanization, with several case studies from India. This multidisciplinary volume will be of great interest to researchers and students of development studies, sociology, economics and urban planning and policy. It will also be useful for policymakers, think tanks and practitioners in the area of urbanization.

This book discusses the need for entrepreneurship for sustainable development from the perspective of Asia, the fastest growing region in the world. The world is now witnessing a spectacular rise of technology entrepreneurship, involving mobile phones, artificial intelligence, geospatial information systems and social media. On the other hand, governments all over the world, particularly those in low and medium income countries, are facing severe resource constraints in developing the livelihood and well-being of citizens. Although many non-government organizations (NGOs) have worked on various development projects in a number of social sectors such as health, education, disabilities, poverty alleviation and environment, there is still substantial scope for technological innovation, including more efficient, effective and user-friendly solutions in different parts of the world. This book is organized into 2 parts and consists of 17 chapters. The first part explores education and well-being, and the second part discusses the climate, environment and disaster management.

Increasing urbanization and changing climate are two critical stressors that are adversely affecting the biophysical environment of urban areas in the Hindu Kush Himalaya. The book discusses various choices and options – from demand management to supply enhancement, understanding ecological footprints of towns to managing water at a bioregional scale. In doing so, it is vital to address issues of equity and empower local institutions in managing water. The focus for the future must be on building urban resilience by strengthening the adaptive capacities of affected communities while also understanding the limits to adaptation. In Focus – a book series that showcases the latest accomplishments in water research. Each book focuses on a specialist area with papers from top experts in the field. It aims to be a vehicle for in-depth understanding and inspire further conversations in the sector.