Book notes
In the words of its editors, Johnson, Toly and Schroeder, “[t]his book is about the ways in which cities, transnational urban networks and global governance institutions have repositioned themselves in the context of urbanization and global climate change” (pages 3–4).
This edited collection compares urban planning in the colonial and postcolonial eras of Lusophone Africa. The premise is that it is difficult to understand current and future conditions of planning in these countries without knowing their political and infrastructural histories.
The aims of this book include discussing the complex relationships among physical landscapes, natural resources, and their modification by human land use in various Asian environments.
Rebuilding Community after Katrina compiles reflections on an unusual initiative.
The two water supply agencies in Can Tho City, Vietnam have contradictory interests when it comes to providing clean water to peri-urban residents. This impedes the provision of high-quality treated water and makes water supply more costly.
Rapid urbanization and industrialization have had multiple impacts on rural Vietnam since economic reforms were introduced in the mid-1980s. In a 2006 study, the authors discovered that three rural settlements focused on specialty fruits were thriving amid all the socioeconomic changes.
The nature of food consumption and production is changing. In the past, rural areas produced food primarily for cities. Urban residents often consumed more than they needed, while the poorest rural smallholders often went hungry.
Rapid growth and urbanization are affecting diets in China, creating tension among competing food-related policy goals. Between 1980 and 2010, the country’s urban population grew from 191 million to 636 million.
The largest and most detailed set of data about what are termed “slums” or “informal settlements” has been built from enumerations undertaken by the residents of these settlements and their federations. These include settlement profiles, house-by-house surveys and mapping.
The importance of effective institutions for development is well established. There is, however, a continuing debate on how to stimulate institutional reform within highly complex political and cultural contexts.