This book asks how thinking governing performing and producing the urban differently can
assist in enabling the creation of alternative urban futures. It is a timely response to the
ongoing crises and pressing challenges that inhabitants of cities towns and villages
worldwide are faced with in the midst of what has been widely dubbed as ¿an urban age¿.
Starting from the premise that current urban development patterns are unsustainable in every
sense of the word the book explores how alternative patterns can be pursued by the wide
variety of actors ¿ from governments and international institutions to slum-dwellers and social
movements ¿ involved in the on-going production of our shared urban condition. The challenges
addressed include exclusion and segregation persisting poverty and increasing inequality
urban sprawl and changing land use patterns and the spatial frames of urban policy. As such
the book appeals to urban scholars policy makers activists and others concerned with shaping
the future of our cities and of urban life in general. Additionally it is of interest to
students in urban planning architecture and design human geography urban sociology and
related fields.
