Global Urban Process: Growth of Towns and Cities

Urbanization, man’s best achievement, forming a very small fraction of human history/existence on this earth, has gone through a series of transformations affected by various forces which are assessed in this book. As the time-gap in the succession of different phases of transformation has lessened, the mid-twentieth century marks a watershed in the course of urbanization both in its regional spread as well as in sharpening the ‘urban divide’, propelled by changes on the political map of the world resulting from decolonization. All these politico-economic changes along with fast changing life-style of people especially in the developing world open up new debates as we consider the urban future.