This handbook provides the most comprehensive examination of Asian citiesdeveloped and developing, large and smalland their urban development.
Investigating the urban challenges and opportunities of cities from every nation in Asia, the handbook engages not only the global cities like Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, and Mumbai but also less studied cities like Dili, Malé, Bandar Seri Begawan, Kabul, and Pyongyang. The handbook discusses Asian cities in alignment to the United Nations New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals in order to contribute to global policy debates. In doing so, it critically reflects on the development trajectories of Asian cities and imagines an urban future, in Asia and the world, in the post-sustainable, post-global, and post-pandemic era.
Presenting 43 chapters of original, insightful research, this book will be of interest to scholars, practitioners, students, and general readers in the fields of urban development, urban policy and planning, urban studies, and Asian studies.
Part I: Introduction
1. Urban Asia in perspective
2. Smart cities in
Asia: Ambiguity, innovation, and evolution
3. Asian cities in and beyond
COVID-19
4. Vulnerable resilience in COVID-19: Invisibility and adaptability
of the informal cities of Southeast Asia
5. Making liveable cities:
Experiences from Asia and the Pacific Part II: East Asian cities
6. East
Asian cities: Deindustrialisation, greening, and the new geography of
urbanisation
7. Hong Kong: One city, three spatial forms, and two possible
fates?
8. Pyongyang: An urban metamorphosis under the power of marketisation
9. Seoul: Pursuing and sharing a global city
10. Shanghai: New directions in
Chinese metropolitan planning
11. Taipei: Towards a liveable and sustainable
city
12. Tokyo: Reinventing the modern Asian metropolis through adaptive
strategies
13. Ulaanbaatar: When international plans and local preferences
over urban densification collide
14. Xian: From an ancient world city to a
21st-century global logistics centre Part III: South Asian cities
15. South
Asian cities: Informalisation of ecological and social change
16. Colombo:
From colonial outpost to indigenous kleptocratic city
17. Delhi: Rethinking
Indian urbanism through the capitals multi-nuclei development
18. Dhaka:
Growth management challenges for a rapidly urbanising megacity
19. Kabul: The
21st century urbanism we did not expect
20. Karachi: Changing institutional
landscapes, challenges, and reforms
21. Kathmandu Valley: Unrealised
proposals, decades of urban chaos and planning for a better future
22. Malé:
Decentralising the worlds densest island capitalplans, determination, and
challenges
23. Mumbai: Mess is morevalue and shortcomings of the citys ad
hoc development process
24. Thimphu: Tranquil, peace, and happy city of the
Himalayas Part IV: Southeast Asian cities
25. Southeast Asian cities: The
imbalances of urban development
26. Bandar Seri Begawan: Why is Bruneis
capital chasing foreign dollars?
27. Bangkok: Creative disorder and the
military imagination
28. Dili: Hurdles in constructing the urban from the
ground
29. Ho Chi Minh City: Can it avoid the path dependence with Thu Duc
City?
30. Jakarta: Seeking the sustainable megacity region
31. Kuala Lumpur:
Post-Vision 2020 and post-pandemic futures
32. Manila: Aspiring to be an
inclusive, resilient, and sustainable city amidst climate and disaster risks
33. Phnom Penh: Towards a post-dependency metropolisation?
34. Singapore:
Planning for healthy ageing
35. Vientiane: Challenges in the policies and
practices for sustainable urban development in a least developed city
36.
Yangon: Displacement urbanism, housing provisionality, and feminist spatial
practicesan infrastructure of care at the urban margin Part V: Central Asian
cities
37. Central Asian cities: Challenges in balancing global, national,
and local development needs
38. Almaty: Modernisation through spatial
reorderingurban networks, transport sector reforms, and Eurasianism
39.
Ashgabat: The architecture as a showcase of a personal regime
40. Bishkek:
Searching for Asianness in a post-Soviet city
41. Dushanbe: Urban
transformation, changing spaces, and identities in Tajikistan
42. Tashkent:
Aspiring for entrepreneurship and innovation hub Part VI: Conclusion
43. The
Asian city in a new urban age
Richard Hu is an urban planner, designer, and critic. His work and interestsboth intellectual and professionalintegrate built environment, economy, and technology to tackle contemporary urban transformations and challenges, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. He is the author of Smart Design: Disruption, Crisis, and the Reshaping of Urban Spaces (2021).
