Handbook of Megacities and Megacity-Regions

Edited by Danielle Labbé, School of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture, Université de Montréal and André Sorensen, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto, Canada

'What remains to be said about cities when the planet is completely urbanized? This astonishing new Handbook seeks answers in the megacity-regions of the world, especially in the burgeoning urban constellations of eastern Asia. The book's diverse and topical chapters help planners and decision-makers, and ultimately inhabitants, to ''find their bearings'' in the unmoored vastness of a planet of megacities.'--Roger Keil, York University, Canada'The book fulfills a very timely mission: to reveal just how complex, varied, and multi-scaled the global urban reality has become - and is still becoming. The authors provide an antidote to simplifying notions about cities and megacities, updating our understanding of urban forces and dynamics, so that we might act upon them more effectively.'--Jeb Brugmann, Founder, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, Germany and author, Welcome to the Urban RevolutionThe Handbook of Megacities and Megacity-Regions provides a much needed assessment of 21st century urbanization, especially with its attention to the scale and density that characterizes todays cities. Its nuanced discussion of how to define megacities and megacity-regions is an important contribution to our understanding of one of the most critical megatrends of our times.'--Eugenie L. Birch, University of Pennsylvania, US

• Contents: 1 Megacities, megacity-regions, and the endgame of urbanization 1André Sorensen and Danielle LabbéPART I THE CONCEPTUAL CHALLENGES OF MEGACITIES2 Thinking about mega-conurbations and planning 21John Friedmann3 City limits: bounding and unbounding in conceptualizing the megacity 33Michael Leaf4 Urbanization and developmental pathways: critical junctures of urbantransition 47André Sorensen5 El Monstruo : reflections on catastrophic metaphors about Mexico City 65Julie-Anne Boudreau and Felipe de AlbaPART II MEGA-URBAN GOVERNANCE6 Urban governance of megacities: searching for the collective actor 78Christian Lefèvre7 Powerful states, weak states: understanding coercion and neglect in thegovernance of Marcos-era Manila 92Nancy Kwak8 Actors and shifting scales of urban governance in India 101Loraine Kennedy9 The incomplete and paradoxical ‘neoliberal turn’ in Mumbai 119Marie-Hélène Zérah10 Nurturing neighbourhoods to sustain quality of life in megacitiesand large city regions: an interdisciplinary reflection on planning forsustainable and socially just cities from Chile 134Lake Sagaris, María Inés Arribas, María Inés Solimano, Sonia Reyes-Paeckeand Juan Carlos MuñozPART III MEGA-URBAN PATTERNS, FORMS AND PLANNING APPROACHES11 Urban containment policies for megacities: the case of Beijing 153Haoying Han12 East Asian megacities: the view from the periphery 169Douglas Webster and Jianyi Li13 On the road again: the geography and characteristics of Americancommuter megaregions 188Alasdair Rae and Garrett Dash Nelson14 The West African corridor from Abidjan to Lagos: a megacity-regionunder construction 206Armelle Choplin and Alice Hertzog15 Cities: growing threats, growing opportunities 223Daniel Hoornweg and Kevin PopePART IV MEGA-URBAN LIFE SPACES AND LIVEABILITY16 Navigating the extensiveness of Jakarta 234AbdouMaliq Simone17 Poverty in a wealthy megacity: stories from Tokyo’s alleys after thebubble burst 245Heide Imai18 Flooding as emotional politics in the Mexican megacity-region 261Felipe de AlbaPART V MEGA-URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES19 Measuring progress toward sustainable megacities 278Iain D. Stewart, Chris A. Kennedy and Angelo Facchini20 Megacities at risk: the climate–energy conundrum 292William E. Rees21 Future megacity-regions and heatwave exposure 309Peter J. Marcotullio, Carsten Keßler and Balázs M. Fekete22 Megacity in the delta: managing water in Jakarta 327Christopher SilverPART VI MEGA-URBAN ECONOMICS, REAL ESTATE AND PROPERTY23 Rethinking megacity-region development: the land–infrastructure–finance nexus as political project 345Gavin Shatkin24 The process of metropolization in megacity-regions 360Rodrigo Cardoso and Evert Meijers25 The emergence and economic restructuring of two global supermegacity-regions in China: comparing the Pearl River and YangtzeRiver Deltas 376Anthony G. O. Yeh, Xingjian Liu, Jili Xu and Mengdi Wu26 The financialization of real estate in megacities and its variegatedtrajectories in East Asia 395Natacha Aveline-DubachIndex 411