Gordon McGranahan is Principal Researcher and Co-Head of the Human Settlements Group, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), UK.George Martine is Technical Director of Dhemos Consulting. He previously served as President of the Brazilian Population Association, Director of UNFPA’s Country Support Team for Latin America, and was Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for Population and Development.

• 1. Urbanisation and development: Policy lessons from the BRICS experience 2. Brazil’s negligent urban transition and its legacy of divided cities 3. China’s radical urbanisation and bringing capital and labour together step by step 4. Russia’s planned urbanization and misplaced urban development 5. South Africa’s tortured urbanisation and the complications of reconstruction 6. India’s sluggish urbanisation and Its exclusionary development 7. Could a more positive approach to urbanization in the BRICS have facilitated both economic growth and social inclusion?

This book by internationally renowned scholars provides a rigorous overview of the urbanisation trajectories of the BRICS, and how these trajectories are shaping future prospects. It will not only assist the BRICS but also help other urbanising countries work out their urbanisation pathways, and to critically re-examine their own policies.–Girija Vyas, Indian Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty AlleviationCarefully avoiding urban boosterism, while making clear that that the power of emergent nations lies in their cities, the editors bring together well focussed and authoritative contributions to offer nuanced and comparative reflection on why and how the urban transitions taking place across the BRICS lie at the heart of contemporary global policy debates.–Susan Parnell, University of Cape Town, South AfricaDespite the talk of rising cities, capitalist globalization is subordinating them and privileging investors over actual and aspiring citizens. Drawing on the experience of the BRICS, this book demonstrates how urban land is often the source of conflict, and that new approaches to urbanization are required to help achieve needed social and environmental reforms.–Erminia Maricato, University of São Paulo, Brazil