Dean Forbes

Professor Department of Geography Dean Forbes

First published in 1984, this title discusses the emergence of both the orthodox and political economy based approaches to underdevelopment in geography , critically assessing their strengths and weaknesses, and showing the relationship between intellectual developments and changing material conditions.

A Critical Survey

The Geography of Underdevelopment

Nigel Thrift

Much rare material is incorporated in this unique account of urbanization in a developing country that was ravaged by war for twenty years. With due emphasis on the experience of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), the authors present an account of what happened to the towns and cities of Vietnam between the establishment of Ho Chi Minh's socialist state in 1954 and the mid 1980s. The story is introduced through a general theoretical and empirical account of urbanization in socialist Third World countries. The book stresses the importance of the turmoil created by warfare in directing urbanization, but it also refers to the more conventially studied determinants of the process such as the institution of a planned economy. As one of the few books highlighting the impact of warfare on urban settlements, The Price of War will interest all those interested in urbanization, development and South-East Asia. This book was first published in 1986.

Urbanization in Vietnam, 1954-1985

The Price of War

Stephen Hamnett

In Planning Asian Cities: Risks and Resilience, Stephen Hamnett and Dean Forbes have brought together some of the region’s most distinguished urbanists to explore the planning history and recent development of Pacific Asia’s major cities. They show how globalization, and the competition to achieve global city status, has had a profound effect on all these cities. Tokyo is an archetypal world city. Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul have acquired world city characteristics. Taipei and Kuala Lumpur have been at the centre of expanding economies in which nationalism and global aspirations have been intertwined and expressed in the built environment. Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai have played key, sometimes competing, roles in China’s rapid economic growth. Bangkok’s amenity economy is currently threatened by political instability, while Jakarta and Manila are the core city-regions of less developed countries with sluggish economies and significant unrealized potential. But how resilient are these cities to the risks that they face? How can they manage continuing pressures for development and growth while reducing their vulnerability to a range of potential crises? How well prepared are they for climate change? How can they build social capital, so important to a city’s recovery from shocks and disasters? What forms of governance and planning are appropriate for the vast mega-regions that are emerging? And, given the tradition of top-down, centralized, state-directed planning which drove the economic growth of many of these cities in the last century, what prospects are there of them becoming more inclusive and sensitive to the diverse needs of their populations and to the importance of culture, heritage and local places in creating liveable cities?

Dean Forbes

Books

Your next favorite book is out there