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Abstract
By many estimates, the world has just crossed the point where more than half the
world’s population is urban, a trend driven by rapid urbanization in developing countries.
Urban centers offer economies of scale in terms of productive enterprise and public
investment. Cities are social melting pots, centers of innovation and drivers of social
change. However, cities are also marked by social differentiation, poverty, conflict and
environmental degradation. These are all issues that not only matter to cities but also lie at the heart of development. As such the time is right to consider afresh the relationship between cities and development. This paper introduces a significant new collection of
multidisciplinary papers focused on urbanization and its implications for development. It raises four questions: (i) What is so special about the urban context? (ii) Why is urbanization and urban growth important to development at the present conjuncture? (iii) What are the strengths and limitations of our current state of knowledge about urbanization and development from the policy perspective and finally, (iv) how can a multidisciplinary
perspective on the urban context add value to development research and policy?