ABSTRACT
The range of countries covered and the range of approaches adopted is very wide, so that it is possible to see very different experiences of urbanisation at a multitude of scales, yet all contributing to the broader picture. The less urbanised areas of the world include sub-Saharan Africa – with a small part of the total world population – and most of Asia – with urbanisation, averaging less than 30%. This Asia includes more than half the world’s population. In the last decade or so urbanisation has begun to take off, and the shift of population to the cities represents one of the greatest population movements the planet has ever seen. Towns and cities are also places of cultural investment – they have been the major centres of artistic patronage since the earliest towns – and our experience of them as visual landscapes is a major part of our visual daily life.
