Introduction

The twenty-first century is undoubtedly an urban age. However, despite increasing recognition of the critical relationship between Global South cities and their countries’ economic and social development, and a proliferation of international programmes to support their greater ‘sustainability’ and ‘resilience’, important gaps remain in understanding the complexities of current urbanisation processes. One limitation relates to gender; while the gendered nature of urban poverty has been widely debated, both theoretically and empirically, ¹ the gendered nature of urban asset ownership, and the accumulation of asset portfolios, has received far less attention (Moser 2008; 2009). This book seeks to rectify this neglect, and in so doing to explore the contribution that a focus on the gendered nature of asset accumulation brings to the goal of achieving just, more equitable cities.