New Drivers of Division: Urbanisation and Spatial Inequality in Africa and Asia

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 replaced by social class through sorting in the housing market. The analyses go beyond the normal income inequality consideration and take a broader perspective on inequality by considering these issues at the neighborhood level to reveal the new spatial divisions in cities. As such, it is essential reading for academics and students in urban studies, sociology, geography, planning, and policymakers working on urban development around the world.

Ya Ping Wang is Professor in Human Geography at Shaanxi Normal University and Emeritus Professor at the University of Glasgow. Until 2023 he was Chair in Global City Futures and Director of the Centre for Sustainable, Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods (SHLC). He is author/co-author of four books: Urban Poverty, Housing and Social Change in China; Planning and Housing in the Rapidly Urbanising World; Housing Policy and Practice in China; and Urban Inequality and Segregation in Europe and China. He is a Fellow of Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and a Fellow of  Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE).

Keith Kintrea is Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies and Housing at the University of Glasgow. Until 2022 he was Deputy Director of the Centre for Sustainable, Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods (SHLC). His research mainly focusses on urban neighbourhoods and the impact they have on resident’s lives and life chances. His most recent book (with Rebecca Madgin) is Transforming Glasgow: Beyond the Postindustrial City (Policy Press, 2020). He is a Fellow of Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS).

David Everatt is Professor of urban Governance at the School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; and a former Head of the same School. He is a past Chair of the South African Statistics Council and serves on the Board of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation. Everatt is Principal Investigator for a newly established Urban Health Demographic Surveillance Site in Gauteng province, South Africa, under the aegis of the Gauteng Research Triangle which draws together the universities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and the Witwatersrand.

Debolina Kundu is Director (additional charge) and Professor at the National Institute of Urban Affairs, India. She has over 25 years of professional experience in the field of development studies and worked as a consultant with various national and international agencies on issues of urbanization, urban development, migration, poverty, governance and exclusion. She was the Country Principal Investigator and partner of the Centre for Sustainable, Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhood (SHLC) support by United Kingdom Research and Innovation. She is Editor-in-Chief of the journals of Environment and Urbanization, Asia (SAGE) and Urban India (NIUA). She co-edited the book “Developing National Urban Policies- Ways Forward to Green and Smart Cities”.