Graham P. Chapman – författare

Anyone who is planning on carrying out research in South Asia or indeed anyone who simply wishes to understand more about this cultural heartland should read this book. It shows how geological movements moulded the land of this unique cradle and how they still impact on it. Discussions are woven around the three major forces of integration. These are 'identitive' forces - bonds of language, ethnicity, religion or ideology; 'utilitarian' forces - bonds of common material interest, and 'coercion' - the institutional use or threat of physical violence. By studying these forces, Professor Chapman shows how the organization of territory has been central to the region's historic, cultural, linguistic and economic development. In addition to the material on the Northwest frontier, Afghanistan and Kashmir which was added for the second edition, the Northeastern borderlands are also now examined in this fully revised third edition. The current geopolitical state of the region is completely updated and greatly enhanced.

Anyone who is planning on carrying out research in South Asia or indeed anyone who simply wishes to understand more about this cultural heartland should read this book. It shows how geological movements moulded the land of this unique cradle and how they still impact on it. Discussions are woven around the three major forces of integration. These are 'identitive' forces - bonds of language, ethnicity, religion or ideology; 'utilitarian' forces - bonds of common material interest, and 'coercion' - the institutional use or threat of physical violence. By studying these forces, Professor Chapman shows how the organization of territory has been central to the region's historic, cultural, linguistic and economic development. In addition to the material on the Northwest frontier, Afghanistan and Kashmir which was added for the second edition, the Northeastern borderlands are also now examined in this fully revised third edition. The current geopolitical state of the region is completely updated and greatly enhanced.

First published in 1999, this volume begins with a panoramic survey by Nigel Harris of the drama of Asian Urbanization, based on the inaugural plenary lecture he gave to the 5th Asian Urbanization Conference held in London. In the following chapters many experts and practitioners from different countries and cities provide a stimulating portrayal of the processes and outcomes of one of the greatest shifts of population (not just absolutely but proportionately as well) ever to have occurred in human history.Asia includes more than half the world’s population, but, apart from the Tiger economies and Japan, it is still overwhelmingly rural. In the last decade or so urbanization has really begun to take off and the shift of population to the cities represents one of the greatest population movements the planet has ever seen. By 2030 more than 50% of Asia’s population will be urban and between now and then more than 500 million people in Asia will have moved - looking for jobs, housing, food and water. They will be both part of a problem and most of the solution - building around them the cities they will live in.