Economic reform in China has resulted in a widening gap between the rich and the poor, and urban poverty has emerged as a key factor which may affect future development. This new book examines the poverty problem in relation to housing and social changes in large inland cities, and assesses the effectiveness of recent government anti-poverty policies. The book also puts the Chinese experience in the wider context of transitional economies and discusses the similarities and differences betw...

Written specifically as a teaching text and authored by a team of leading academics in the field, this is the first book to bring together the key issues of rapid urbanisation with approaches to planning and housing.Outlining and explaining core concepts from ‘informal settlements’ to ‘sustainability’, it focuses on the rapid urbanization of developing countries with case studies from Latin America, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of rapid urbanization and associated global...

This open access book provides recent trends of urbanization and inequality in Africa and Asia. It addresses the inequality challenges of urbanization and large-scale rural-to-urban migration. It answers questions around socio-economic and spatial inequalities and how serious those are in cities in Africa and Asia under 21st-century urbanization. Chapters demonstrate how the old neighborhood division in cities based on race, ethnicity, religion, apartheid, tribes, caste and migrant are rep...

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) contains an extensive knowledge that the Chinese nation has accumulated through practical experimentation and theoretical research in treating diseases and promoting health over a period of thousands of years. Throughout the history, many TCM theorists, experts, and pharmacists have contributed valuable works. The most representative of them was Li Shizhen with his Ben Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), which was praised by Charles Darwin as an '...

This open access book is the first of its kind that examines the urban development trajectory, sustainability, and urban policies' role across seven different countries in Asia and Africa. It offers theoretical and policy contributions emerging from a rigorous analysis of conditions on the ground in each city, combined with a critical engagement with urban policy in the respective city/country. It examines key developments in national urban policy over the years and maps emerging urbanizat...

This open access book explores new research directions in social inequality and urban segregation. With the goal of fostering an ongoing dialogue between scholars in Europe and China, it brings together an impressive team of international researchers to shed light on the entwined processes of inequality and segregation, and the implications for urban development. Through a rich collection of empirical studies at the city, regional and national levels, the book explores the impact of migrat...

Increasing economic inequality in cities, and the spatial translation of that into more segregated neighbourhoods, is top of the political agenda in developed countries. While the overall living standards have increased in the last century, the focus has now shifted from poverty to economic differences, with a particular focus on the gap between the very poor and the (ultra-)rich.The authors observe a common view among policy-makers and researchers alike: that urban-economic inequa...

Forty-five contributions from renowned international specialists in the field provide readers with expert analysis of the core issues related to the welfare state, including regional depictions of welfare states around the globe. The second edition of the Routledge Handbook of the Welfare State combines essays on methodologies, core concepts and central policy areas to produce a comprehensive understanding of what ‘the welfare state’ means around the world.In the aftermath...

This book offers an innovative analysis of the ways in which the relationship between citizens and welfare states - social citizenship - becomes more dynamic and multifaceted as a result of Europeanization and individualization.Written by interdisciplinary contributors from politics, sociology, law and philosophy, it examines the transformation of social citizenship through a series of illuminating case studies, comparing Nordic countries and other European nations.Dealing ...

We know very little about variations in urban class and ethnic segregation among nations and even less about differences among cities in different regions of the world. Spatial organization (places and neighbourhoods) matters significantly in some cities in reproducing class relations and ethno-racial hierarchies, but may be much less important in others. The degree and the impact of segregation depend upon contextual diversity. By emphasizing the importance of contextual diversity in the ...

For the first time in human history more people now live and towns and cities than in rural areas. In the wealthier countries of the world, the transition from predominantly rural to urban habitation is more or less complete. But in many parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, urban populations are expanding rapidly. Current UN projections indicate that virtually all population growth in the world over the next 30 years will be absorbed by towns and cities in developing countries...

The frequency with which people move home has important implications for national economic performance and the well-being of individuals and families. Much contemporary social and migration theory posits that the world is becoming more mobile, leading to the recent ‘mobilities turn’ within the social sciences. Yet, there is mounting evidence to suggest that this may not be true of all types of mobility, nor apply equally to all geographical contexts. For example, it is now clear that inter...