ABSTRACT

This handbook provides the most comprehensive examination of Asian cities—developed and developing, large and small—and 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|70 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|23 pages

Urban Asia in perspective

chapter 2|12 pages

Smart cities in Asia

Ambiguity, innovation, and evolution

chapter 4|11 pages

Vulnerable resilience in COVID-19

Invisibility and adaptability of the ‘informal’ cities of Southeast Asia

chapter 5|11 pages

Making liveable cities

Experiences from Asia and the Pacific

part II|116 pages

East Asian cities

chapter 6|14 pages

East Asian cities

Deindustrialisation, greening, and the new geography of urbanisation

chapter 7|17 pages

Hong Kong

One city, three spatial forms, and two possible fates?

chapter 8|11 pages

Pyongyang

An urban metamorphosis under the power of marketisation

chapter 9|11 pages

Seoul

Pursuing and sharing a global city

chapter 10|14 pages

Shanghai

New directions in Chinese metropolitan planning

chapter 11|14 pages

Taipei

Towards a liveable and sustainable city

chapter 12|9 pages

Tokyo

Reinventing the modern Asian metropolis through adaptive strategies

chapter 13|9 pages

Ulaanbaatar

When international plans and local preferences over urban densification collide

chapter 14|15 pages

Xi'an

From an ancient world city to a 21st-century global logistics centre

part III|114 pages

South Asian cities

chapter 15|12 pages

South Asian cities

Informalisation of ecological and social change

chapter 16|12 pages

Colombo

From colonial outpost to indigenous kleptocratic city

chapter 17|12 pages

Delhi

Rethinking Indian urbanism through the capital's multi-nuclei development

chapter 18|13 pages

Dhaka

Growth management challenges for a rapidly urbanising megacity

chapter 19|11 pages

Kabul

The 21st-century urbanism we did not expect

chapter 20|8 pages

Karachi

Changing institutional landscapes, challenges, and reforms

chapter 21|13 pages

Kathmandu Valley

Unrealised proposals, decades of urban chaos, and planning for a better future

chapter 22|10 pages

Malé

Decentralising the world's densest island capital—plans, determination, and challenges

chapter 23|11 pages

Mumbai

‘Mess is more’—value and shortcomings of the city's ad hoc development process

chapter 24|10 pages

Thimphu

Tranquil, peace, and happy city of the Himalayas

part IV|148 pages

Southeast Asian cities

chapter 25|15 pages

Southeast Asian cities

The imbalances of urban development

chapter 26|11 pages

Bandar Seri Begawan

Why is Brunei's capital chasing foreign dollars?

chapter 27|14 pages

Bangkok

Creative disorder and the military imagination

chapter 28|10 pages

Dili

Hurdles in constructing the urban from the ground

chapter 29|12 pages

Ho Chi Minh City

Can it avoid the path dependence with Thu Duc City?

chapter 30|15 pages

Jakarta

Seeking the sustainable megacity region

chapter 31|12 pages

Kuala Lumpur

Post-Vision 2020 and post-pandemic futures

chapter 32|13 pages

Manila

Aspiring to be an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable city amidst climate and disaster risks

chapter 33|10 pages

Phnom Penh

Towards a post-dependency metropolisation?

chapter 34|11 pages

Singapore

Planning for healthy ageing

chapter 35|11 pages

Vientiane

Challenges in the policies and practices for sustainable urban development in a ‘least developed’ city

chapter 36|12 pages

Yangon

Displacement urbanism, housing provisionality, and feminist spatial practices—an infrastructure of care at the urban margin

part V|64 pages

Central Asian cities

chapter 37|12 pages

Central Asian cities

Challenges in balancing global, national, and local development needs

chapter 38|9 pages

Almaty

Modernisation through spatial reordering—stratification, transport sector reforms, and Eurasianism

chapter 39|11 pages

Ashgabat

The architecture as a showcase of a personal regime

chapter 40|9 pages

Bishkek

Searching for Asianness in a post-Soviet city

chapter 41|11 pages

Dushanbe

Urban transformation, changing spaces, and identities in Tajikistan

chapter 42|10 pages

Tashkent

Aspiring for entrepreneurship and innovation hub

part VI|10 pages

Conclusion

chapter 43|8 pages

The Asian city in a new urban age