Awards

• Runner-up for Best Book in Urban Affairs Award 2018 (United States)

Overview

Cities for Profit examines the phenomenon of urban real estate megaprojects in Asia-massive, privately built planned urban developments that have captured the imagination of politicians, policymakers, and citizens across the region. These controversial projects, embraced by elites, occasion massive displacement and have extensive social and economic impacts. Gavin Shatkin finds commonalities and similarities in dozens of such projects in Jakarta, Kolkata, and Chongqing. Shatkin is at the vanguard of urban studies in his focus on real estate. Just as cities are increasingly defined and remapped according to the value of the land under their residents' feet, the lives of city dwellers are shaped and constrained by their ability to keep up with rising costs of urban life. Scholars and policy and planning professionals alike will benefit from Shatkin's comprehensive research. Cities for Profit contains insights from more than 150 interviews, site visits to projects, and data from government and nongovernmental organization reports and data, urban plans, architectural renderings, annual reports and promotional materials of developers, and newspaper and other media accounts.

Full Product Details

9781501711138

Table of Contents

Reviews

This excellent comparative study of real-estate-based urban development in Asia is essential reading for all urbanists. This book should change how urban scholars and practitioners, residents and policymakers think about and engage in the politics of making urban futures. --Jennifer Robinson, University College London, author of Ordinary Cities Cities for Profit breaks new conceptual ground in the study of global urbanism at the start of the new millennium. The writing is clear, the analysis is pathbreaking, and the approach is innovative. Gavin Shatkin helps us understand how urban megaprojects come about, the patterns of their spatial dispersal, and their social impact on local urban communities. --Martin Murray, Taubman College, author of Taming the Disorderly City In this meticulously researched, methodologically elegant study, Gavin Shatkin offers an essential guide to state-led but profit-driven transformations of urban land, property, governance and space in Asian cities. --Neil Brenner, Harvard University, and author of Critique of Urbanization

Scholars, policy makers, and urban planners could benefit from this excellent, comprehensive research. The reading is essential to students and scholars of urban theory and policy, urban studies in Asia, and Asian political economy in general. * Choice * Shatkin's...in-depth analysis of the cases reveals agents maneuvering through, within, and around complex processes and structures; comparison of the cases permits discovery of patterns of similarity and difference. Following Jennifer Robinson, he also moves us beyond the macroforces of global integration and neoliberalism to give equal consideration to the microdynamics of place. * American Journal of Sociology * Cities for Profit provides a significant perspective on the current strategies being enacted across urban Asia by political actors. Beyond the specific megaprojects described in the case studies, readers will gain valuable information about the present state of land reforms and urban processes in these countries. Shatkin's careful analysis proves that the local manifestation of neoliberalizing forces is highly varied because of the historically and spatially contingent conditions shaping urban politics. In addition, the role of infrastructure as a significant component for urban megaproject development recurs throughout the book and is a subject that could be developed in further research. In conclusion, Cities for Profit deserves to be read by all researchers interested in the dynamics of contemporary Asian urbanism and the spatial forms that accompany new state strategies. * International Journal of Urban and Regional research * Cities for Profit is theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich. It provides a comparative lens focusing on the role of the state in Asia's real estate turn. It is an ideal and useful text for graduate-level courses on comparative urbanism, urban politics, international planning, land development, and the state-society relationship. For researchers who are drawn to the merits of comparative urban studies, this book is invaluable. * Journal of Urban Affairs *

This excellent comparative study of real-estate-based urban development in Asia is essential reading for all urbanists. This book should change how urban scholars and practitioners, residents and policymakers think about and engage in the politics of making urban futures. --Jennifer Robinson, University College London, author of Ordinary Cities Cities for Profit breaks new conceptual ground in the study of global urbanism at the start of the new millennium. The writing is clear, the analysis is pathbreaking, and the approach is innovative. Gavin Shatkin helps us understand how urban megaprojects come about, the patterns of their spatial dispersal, and their social impact on local urban communities. --Martin Murray, Taubman College, author of Taming the Disorderly City Cities for Profit breaks new conceptual ground in the study of global urbanism at the start of the new millennium. The writing is clear, the analysis is pathbreaking, and the approach is innovative. Gavin Shatkin helps us understand how urban megaprojects come about, the patterns of their spatial dispersal, and their social impact on local urban communities. --Martin Murray, Taubman College, author of Taming the Disorderly City In this meticulously researched, methodologically elegant study, Gavin Shatkin offers an essential guide to state-led but profit-driven transformations of urban land, property, governance and space in Asian cities. --Neil Brenner, Harvard University, and author of Critique of Urbanization

This excellent comparative study of real-estate-based urban development in Asia is essential reading for all urbanists. This book should change how urban scholars and practitioners, residents and policymakers think about and engage in the politics of making urban futures. -- Jennifer Robinson, University College London, author of <I> Ordinary Cities</I> Cities for Profit breaks new conceptual ground in the study of global urbanism at the start of the new millennium. The writing is clear, the analysis is pathbreaking, and the approach is innovative. Gavin Shatkin helps us understand how urban megaprojects come about, the patterns of their spatial dispersal, and their social impact on local urban communities. -- Martin Murray, Taubman College, author of <I> Taming the Disorderly City</I> In this meticulously researched, methodologically elegant study, Gavin Shatkin offers an essential guide to state-led but profit-driven transformations of urban land, property, governance and space in Asian cities. -- Neil Brenner, Harvard University, and author of <I>Critique of Urbanization</I>

In this meticulously researched, methodologically elegant study, Gavin Shatkin offers an essential guide to state-led but profit-driven transformations of urban land, property, governance and space in Asian cities. -- Neil Brenner, Harvard University, and author of <I>Critique of Urbanization</I> Cities for Profit breaks new conceptual ground in the study of global urbanism at the start of the new millennium. The writing is clear, the analysis is pathbreaking, and the approach is innovative. Gavin Shatkin helps us understand how urban megaprojects come about, the patterns of their spatial dispersal, and their social impact on local urban communities. -- Martin Murray, Taubman College, author of <I> Taming the Disorderly City</I> This excellent comparative study of real-estate-based urban development in Asia is essential reading for all urbanists. This book should change how urban scholars and practitioners, residents and policymakers think about and engage in the politics of making urban futures. -- Jennifer Robinson, University College London, author of <I> Ordinary Cities</I>

Author Information

Gavin Shatkin is Associate Professor of Architecture at Northeastern University.

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