With the urbanization of the world's population proceeding apace and the equally rapid urbanization of poverty, urban theory has an urgent challenge to meet if it is to remain relevant to the majority of cities and their populations, many of which are outside the West.

This groundbreaking book establishes a new framework for urban development. It makes the argument that all cities are best understood as ordinary, and crosses the longstanding divide in urban scholarship and urban policy between Western and other cities (especially those labelled Third World ). It considers...