Mega-Urban Regions in Pacific Asia: Urban Dynamics in a Global Era

Gavin Jones & Mike Douglass (Editors)

Southeast Asia contains four urban conglomerates of the sort that this study characterizes as Mega-Urban Regions – Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh. These locations are examined in this book, along with Taipei and Shanghai. Because the administrative boundaries of the cities at the core of these zones do not include the entire urban area, the significance of the broader urban community has largely escaped scholarly attention. The authors base their analysis on actual agglomeration size rather than administrative boundaries, and draw on unpublished census data to study the dynamics of these massive urban zones, considering area and population size as well as social and demographic patterns of change in core, inner and outer zones. They conclude that these mega-urban regions continue to increase their share of national populations, and zones immediately beyond the official metropolitan boundaries are where the most dramatic changes are occurring.

Gavin JONES is Professor at the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
Mike DOUGLASS is the Executive Director of the Globalization Research Center and a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Hawaii, Manoa.

publication year: 2008
416 pages
ISBN: 978-9971-69-379-4  Paperback  US$30.00  S$38.00