3 Review(s)

Contemporary Asia comprises several regions that are undergoing rapid socio-economic and developmental transition, and are exhibiting inexorable, intensifying trends of urbanization and migration. Their unique experiences raise a number of crucial questions. What drives peoples’ migration from rural to urban areas? How do global forces affect urban development, and in what ways? What are the challenges associated with rural–urban migration and resettlement, especially for the disadvantaged groups, and how are they being faced? Exploring answers to these questions and more, this volume brings together fresh, multidisciplinary research and case studies on seven Asian countries—India, China, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. The essays, while dealing with the immediate concerns of urbanization, namely, population density and dynamics, also tackle larger sociological questions of social diversity and relationships, urban spaces and politics, and social change. The multipronged impact of globalization on these societies’ developmental experience forms an overarching analytical background to the essays. About the Author Jo Beall is Director, Education and Society, British Council, London. Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis is Senior Economist, United Nations Development Programme, Nepal. Ravi Kanbur is the T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs and International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, USA.