'Megacities' around the world are becoming the scene for deprivation and exclusion. This book examines world-wide trends in poverty, social exclusion, and urban violence.

For the first time in history, the majority of the world's population lives in cities, the result of a rapid process of urbanization that started in the second half of the twentieth century. 'Megacities' around the world are rapidly becoming the scene for deprivation, especially in the global South, and the urban excluded face the brunt of what in many cases seems like low-intensity warfare.

Featuring case studies from across the globe, including Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Megacities examines recent worldwide trends in poverty and social exclusion, urban violence and politics, and links these to the challenges faced by policy-makers and practitioners.

This edited volume is a useful academic insertion into discussions in the development community about poverty alleviation and good governance in the so-called megacities of the Global South. A fine roster of scholars articulates the ways in which poverty is intertwined with inequality, social and political exclusion as well as crime and increasing violence in cities in Latin America, the Middle East, and Southern Africa. Their work is quite valuable for its analysis of the contradictions embedded in the ways in which a rhetorical advance of participatory, democratic governance aimed at poverty reduction runs smack into the real wall of repression, insecurity, and injustice.