Inclusions and Exclusions

Abstract

introductory chapter brings to the table the issues faced by the urban poor in the cities of developing Asia. This is a rare collection, though a number of books have either analysed the economic dynamics of emerging "world cities" in Asia or praised the rapid economic development of Asia, the ensuing urbanisation and challenges therein. However, there is a realisation now that the Asian "urban authorities have found it difficult to integrate ..,(the)...efforts of the urban poor into mainstream metropolitan water, sanitation, solid waste management and transport systems. Worse, in the adoption of infrastructure and urban services programmes, the real needs of the urban poor have been overlooked as urban authorities have focused on high prestige and hightechnology options that are often beyond poor people's capacity to pay" (pp xvii-xviii). The book is an outcome of -the "Urban Forum on Urban Infrastructure and Public Service Delivery for the Urban Poor, Regional Focus: Asia" held in New Delhi in 2004, by the Comparative Urban Studies Project of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars and National Institute of Urban Affairs, India. The articles in the book cover a wide range of urban issues regarding housing, water supply and sanitation, solid waste management, and interestingly, urban transit, from the perspective of the poor, and hence make interesting reading. I will raise the issues and concerns expressed by the author(s) of the individual chapters, which in a sense call for more research on the topic. This book also raises a few more issues for future research and brings on board more realistic perspectives about Asian urbanisation at a time when it is being mechanistically stated that the 21st century belongs to Asia! The Inclusive City Infrastructure and Public Services for the Urban Poor in Asia edited by Aprodicio A Laquian, Vinod Tewari and Lisa M Hanley; Woodrow Wilson Centre Press, Washington DC and The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2007;ppxx+342,$50.