Theorising Urban Development From the Global South

This edited volume brings together debates from the Global South and Global East to explore alternatives to conventional planning in Southern cities.

“South-to-south conversations, which enable the direct sharing of ideas and practices across countries and continents, offer a promising pathway for building a richer understanding of the urban processes around the world. This book is an account of one of these fruitful conversations, organized between Bangalore and Medellin and expanded to include other voices and experiences. It is a welcome contribution to the search for alternative theories of urban development.”

– Ali Madanipour, Newcastle University, UK

“The volume includes a wealth of new ideas and perspectives that explore current challenges and opportunities within Southern cities. With diverse authors drawing on examples across the global South, the tension between homogenising and counter homogenising processes is addressed directly. Common themes are considered through the chapters as ideas are picked up and developed; but the originality of research contributions is not compromised. This is a volumethat illustrates what has been lost due to the paucity of Southern voices in global debates about urban development. Making a contribution to trans-national learning, this book manages to be a fascinating, informative and enjoyable read!”

– Diana Mitlin, International Institute for Environment and Development, UK

The book gathers debates from the Global South to offers ‘fragments’ of the urban that provide clues to the larger, often-repeated ontological question that continues to hold: why and what does theory from the South mean? Deriving from and speaking to the simultaneously homogenous and heterogeneous South, the Chapters explore locally rooted knowledge systems, premised on social and cultural practices, as possible conduits to evolving planning methods and theory.

Anjali Karol Mohan is an Urban and Regional Planning Faculty at the Institute of Public Policy, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.

Juliana Gómez Aristizábal is leading the Master’s program in Urban and Environmental Processes at URBAM, EAFIT University, Medellín, Colombia.

Sony Pellissery is Director, Institute of Public Policy, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.

Chapters [Chapter-1] and [Chapter-11] are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This edited volume brings together debates from the Global South and Global East to explore alternatives to conventional planning in Southern cities. Embracing the evolving post-colonial theory, the volume offers ‘fragments’ of the urban that provide clues to the larger, often-repeated ontological question that continues to hold: Why and what does theory from the South mean? The chapters derive from and speak to the simultaneously homogenous and heterogeneous South. They focus on presenting the alternative realities of Southern cities as critical analytical lenses that can build up to the theorisation of the Southern urban with a potential to (re)understand the contemporary urban world. The contributions explore locally rooted knowledge systems, premised on social and cultural practices, as possible conduits to evolving planning methods. In doing so, the volume breaks apart the linear modernity that urban theory from the North relies on.

Chapters [Chapter-1] and [Chapter-11]are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.