South Asian Cities in the Twenty-First Century

The focus of the book is on the contemporary South Asian city in the early 21st century. The case studies are drawn primarily from the largest cities in South Asia. The book seeks to fill a gap in the international literature on cities. There has been no comprehensive study published on South Asian cities in the past two decades and during this period enormous demographic, economic, social and environmental changes have occurred. The authors take an approach which does not start from the view of South Asian cities as 'undeveloped' or chaotic when compared to the cities of the west. Rather, an important emphasis will be on understanding the different forms of order which have enabled these cities to continue functioning under recent conditions of dramatic economic growth and change. The intent is to present South Asian cities as products of their own long and complex histories rather than to assess them simply against western notions of development and modernity.