Future Challenges of Cities in Asia

The ten essays in Future Challenges of Cities in Asia engage with some of the most critical urban questions of the near future across Asia. These comprise socio-economic and cultural transitions as a result of urbanization; environmental challenges, especially questions of climate change, natural disasters, and environmental justice; and the challenges of urban infrastructure, built form, and new emerging types of urban settlements. The essays demonstrate that it is increasingly difficult to conceptualize the 'urban' as one particular type of settlement. Rather, it would be more accurate to say that the 'urban' characterizes a global transition in the way we are beginning to think about settlements. This book is of interest not only to researchers interested in comparative and inter-disciplinary research, but also to urban practitioners more broadly, illustrating through concrete cases the challenges that urban regions in Asia and beyond are facing, and the various opportunities that exist for dealing with these challenges.

Gregory Bracken is Assistant Professor of Spatial Planning and Strategy at TU Delft and one of the co-founders of Footprint, the journal dedicated to architecture theory. From 2009 to 2015 he was a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) Leiden where he co-founded the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA). His publications include >The Shanghai Alleyway House: A Vanishing Urban Vernacular >(2013), >Asian Cities: Colonial to Global> (2015), >Contemporary Practices of Citizenship in Asia and the West> (2020), and >Ancient and Modern Practices of Citizenship in Asia and the West> (2019).
Paul Rabé is Academic Coordinator of the Cities Cluster at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden as well as overall coordinator of the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA) and the River Cities Network: Engaging with Waterways in the Anthropocene (RCN). Paul is also series editor of Amsterdam University Press’s Asian Cities Book Series, and is Lead Expert in Urban Land Governance at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he is also joint coordinator of the Urban Environment, Sustainability, and Climate Change academic track. A political scientist by training, with a doctoral degree (2009) in policy, planning and development from the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, Paul has over 25 years of experience in advisory work, capacity development, research, and teaching on urban policy topics, focused on urban land governance and the intersection of land (use) and the management of water and water bodies in urban and peri-urban areas.
Dr. R. Parthasarathy is a MEGA Chair Professor and Director, Gujarat Institute of Development Research.
Dr. Neha Sami is Senior Academic and Research Consultant at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
Dr. Bing Zhang is the Chief Planner of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design and Adjunct Professor at Tongji and Tianjin Universities.