Megacities

The year 2005 marks the beginning of the "International Decade for Action: Water for Life" and renewed effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) to reduce by half the proportion of the world's population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015. Currently, UNICEF and WHO estimate that 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water supplies and 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. Providing safe water and basic sanitation to meet the MDGs will require substantial economic resources, sustainable technological solutions and courageous political will. We review five major challenges to providing safe water and sanitation on a global basis: (1) contamination of water in distribution systems, (2) growing water scarcity and the potential for water reuse and conservation, (3) implementing innovative low-cost sanitation systems, (4) providing sustainable water supplies and sanitation for megacities, and (5) reducing glob...

"Mintha mindent megírt volna a szerző a digitális médiáról és az azzal érkezett új társadalomról. Ahogy látom, mindent meg is írt, vagy ha nem, én nem jöttem rá, mi az. Hihetetlenül szórakoztató, nagyon jól demonstráló, érdekes példákkal alátámasztott magyarázatok, amiket élmény olvasni. Intellektuálisan izgató könyv!" Heal Edina igazgató, Google Magyarország

"A kötet alapmű a digitális trendek áttekintéséhez és megértéséhez. Egyszerre ad muníciót több szakmának - az IT-tól a marketingig, az üzleti döntéshozástól a felsőoktatás-kutatásig és a művészetig. A szerző átfogó nemzetközi tapasztalatát kamatoztatja példáival és illusztrációival. Az olvasó végül egy hosszabb távon érvényes kötet birtokosa lehet a gyorsan változó trendek világában." Akadémiai Kiadó

This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.

Phronetic organizational research is an approach to the study of management and organizations focusing on ethics and power. It is based on a contemporary interpretation of the Aristotelian concept phronesis, usually as ‘prudence’. Phronesis is the ability to think and act in relation to values, to deliberate about ‘things that are good or bad for humans’ in the words of Aristotle (1976:1140a24–b12). Phronetic organizational research effectively provides answers to the following four value-rational questions, for specific problematics in management and organization studies: 1. Where are we going with this specific management problematic? 2. Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? 3. Is this development desirable? 4. What, if anything, should we do about it?

As the contemporary trends of increasing urbanisation - especially the process of forming large urban agglomerations qualified as megacities - accelerates around the world, the quality of environment becomes the major question of urban agenda. At the same time cities face common global challenges.
Tokyo, the largest mega-region in the world, evaluated as one of the most efficient, productive and sustainable global city. The high standards of living and the quality of the urban environment are approved by numerous rankings, complied by leading international experts.
This study analyzes the history of Tokyo`s contemporary urban structure development, based on the urban development activities, competitive urban development strategies and concepts (as an indicator of changes in priorities of urban planning), and data of field surveys. This research identifies four stages of urban development and determines the sequence of developed strategies. This study based on both - real and utopian - city planning projects. Also it defines traditional features of Japanese planning and analyses the concept utopian projects in order to follow the evolution of these significant attributes.
During the course of the second half of twentieth century Tokyo was characterized by rapid urban growth and development, increasing industrialization and urban sprawl that caused an environmental crisis.
After that, Tokyo has been facing new challenges as it left the phase of post-industrial development and entered the phase of new sustainable urbanism, improving the urban quality. In this way Tokyo seems to represent a model of healthy and safe urban structure - Smart City of twenty first century.

The Aalborg Project may be interpreted as a metaphor of modern politics, modern administration and planning, and of modernity itself. The basic idea of the project was comprehensive, coherent, and innovative, and it was based on rational and democratic argument. During implementation, however, when idea met reality, the play of Machiavellian princes, Nietzschean will to power, and Foucauldian rationality-as-rationalization resulted in the fragmentation of the project.

At the same time that case studies are widely used and have produced canonical texts, it may be observed that the case study as a methodology is generally held in low regard, or is simply ignored, within the academy. For example, only 2 of the 30 top-ranked U.S. graduate programs in political science require a dedicated graduate course in case study or qualitative methods, and a full third of these programs do not even offer such a course. In contrast, all of the top 30 programs offer courses in quantitative methods and almost all of them require training in such methods, often several courses. In identifying this paradox of the case study’s wide use and low regard, Gerring rightly remarks that the case study survives in a “curious methodological limbo,” and that the reason is that the method is poorly understood. In what follows, we will try to resolve Gerring’s paradox and help case study research gain wider use and acceptance.

O presente artigo propõe uma reflexão sobre o significado do federalismo constitucional a partir da experiência proporcionada pelas megacidades, que emergem enquanto verdadeiros espaços de ressignificação constitucional da importância urbana. É preciso repensar o status ocupado pelas cidades na ordem constitucional, já que são formalmente integrantes do pacto federativo, ainda que usualmente esquecidas nas considerações e arranjos políticos. A partir da discussão proposta por Ran Hirschl,[2] se mostra relevante a densificação dos argumentos basilares para o reposicionamento do governo urbano municipal no desenho constitucional federativo.

In this paper we argue that the use of the communicative theory of Jürgen Habermas in planning theory is problematic because it hampers an understanding of how power shapes planning. We posit an alternative approach based on the power analytics of Michel Foucault which focuses on ‘what is actually done’, as opposed to Habermas’s focus on ‘what should be done’. We discuss how the Foucauldian stance problematises planning, asking difficult questions about the treatment of legitimacy, rationality, knowledge and spatiality. We conclude that Foucault offers a type of analytic planning theory which offers better prospects than does Habermas for those interested in understanding and bringing about democratic social change through planning.

This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of cost escalation in transportation infrastructure projects. Based on a sample of 258 transportation infrastructure projects worth US$90 billion and representing different project types, geographical regions, and historical periods, it is found with overwhelming statistical significance that the cost estimates used to decide whether such projects should be built are highly and systematically misleading. Underestimation cannot be explained by error and is best explained by strategic misrepresentation, that is, lying. The policy implications are clear: legislators, administrators, investors, media representatives, and members of the public who value honest numbers should not trust cost estimates and cost-benefit analyses produced by project promoters and their analysts.

This article presents the theoretical and methodological considerations behind a research method which the author calls ‘phronetic planning research’. Such research sets out to answer four questions of power and values for specific instances of planning: (1) Where are we going with planning? (2) Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? (3) Is this development desirable? (4) What, if anything, should we do about it? A central task of phronetic planning research is to provide concrete examples and detailed narratives of the ways in which power and values work in planning and with what consequences to whom, and to suggest how relations of power and values could be changed to work with other consequences. Insofar as planning situations become clear, they are clarified by detailed stories of who is doing what to whom. Clarifications of that kind are a principal concern for phronetic planning research and provide the main link to praxis.

Megacities have frequently received a disproportionate amount of attention over other sizes of cities in recent discourse on urban sustainability. In this article, the authors argue that a focus on smaller and medium-sized cities is crucial to achieving substantial progress towards more sustainable urban development, not only because they are home to at least a quarter of the world's population but because they also offer great potential for sustainable transformations. In principle, their size allows for flexibility in terms of urban expansion, adoption of "green" travel modes, and environmental protection. At the same time, smaller and medium-sized cities often have fewer resources to implement new transport measures and can be more vulnerable to fluctuations in the world economy. This article critically reviews the potential role and impact of nine commonly considered options for sustainable urban transport in cities in developing countries: (1) road infrastructure;

Megaproject Planning and Management: Essential Readings contains the seminal articles from the growing body of research on megaproject planning and management along with an original introduction by the editor, Bent Flyvbjerg. The leading and most cited authority in the field, Flyvbjerg has used crowdsourcing and 25 years of experience to cherry-pick from several hundred articles and books the writings that define the field. This volume will be an indispensable source for those wishing to speak with authority about how megaprojects are prepared, delivered, and fought over. The target audience is students, academics, practitioners, and media pundits alike, as well as communities affected by megaprojects.

Effectively assessing urban terrain is necessary to effective operations -- military, policing and humanitarian. This brief essay puts forward a typology of key urban terrain facets and features that can help military planners and other police and humanitarian counterparts to better understand and negotiate the complex dynamics of urban operations. This essay does not possess the weight of doctrine or replace existing IPB or CPOE practices, but it is hoped that it will inform the much-needed discussions to prepare both defenders and attackers for the urban operations of the future.

Back cover text: If the new fin de siècle marks a recurrence of the real, Bent Flyvbjerg’s Rationality and Power epitomizes that development and sets new standards for social and political inquiry. The Danish town of Aalborg is to Flyvbjerg what Florence was to Machiavelli: a laboratory for understanding the real workings of power, and for grasping what they mean to our more general concerns of social and political organization. Politics, administration, and planning are examined in ways that allow  a rare, in-depth understanding. The reader witnesses, firsthand, the classic and endless drama which defines what modernity and democracy are and can be.

Following Arnika Fuhrmann’s (2016) suggestion, we can argue that cinematic (and by implication, literary) narratives provide a key to an understanding of the transformation of the spatiotemporal frameworks that inform social and political agency under the conditions of urban migration. And, as Ravi Sundaram points out in response to Partha Chatterjee’s concept of a “political society” and of the politics of mobilizing the “governed”, which includes squatting, the regularization of unauthorized colonies and the building of informal infrastructures in urban environments, there is no “politics before media”, but only politics in and through media (Sundaram 2011, 21).
I first want to discuss the question of media urbanity and the intelligibility of urban space with a view to the question of what Sarah Sharma proposes to call “temporal publics”, that is the multilayered temporalities of urban space. I then want to address the question of narrative and props and/as infrastructure, before I discuss the three examples in the essay’s experimental set-up.

Back cover text: Megaprojects and Risk provides the first detailed examination of the phenomenon of megaprojects. It is a fascinating account of how the promoters of multi-billion dollar megaprojects systematically and self-servingly misinform parliaments, the public and the media in order to get projects approved and built. It shows, in unusual depth, how the formula for approval is an unhealthy cocktail of underestimated costs, overestimated revenues, undervalued environmental impacts and overvalued economic development effects. This results in projects that are extremely risky, but where the risk is concealed from MPs, taxpayers and investors. The authors not only explore the problems but also suggest practical solutions drawing on theory, experience and hard, scientific evidence from the several hundred projects in twenty nations and five continents that illustrate the book. Accessibly written, it will be the standard reference for students, scholars, planners, economists, auditors, politicians and interested citizens for many years to come.

The article first describes characteristics of major infrastructure projects. Second, it documents a much neglected topic in economics: that ex ante estimates of costs and benefits are often very different from actual ex post costs and benefits. For large infrastructure projects the consequences are cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and the systematic underestimation of risks. Third, implications for cost–benefit analysis are described, including that such analysis is not to be trusted for major infrastructure projects. Fourth, the article uncovers the causes of this state of affairs in terms of perverse incentives that encourage promoters to underestimate costs and overestimate benefits in the business cases for their projects. But the projects that are made to look best on paper are the projects that amass the highest cost overruns and benefit shortfalls in reality. The article depicts this situation as ‘survival of the unfittest’. Fifth, the article sets out to explain how the problem may be solved, with a view to arriving at more efficient and more democratic projects, and avoiding the scandals that often accompany major infrastructure investments. Finally, the article identifies current trends in major infrastructure development. It is argued that a rapid increase in stimulus spending, combined with more investments in emerging economies, combined with more spending on information technology is catapulting infrastructure investment from the frying pan into the fire.

Großraum Jakarta bezieht sich auf das Ballungsgebiet Jakarta und beinhaltet auch die städtischen Siedlungsgebiete außerhalb der Distriktgrenzen der Hauptstadt 1. Einführung Seit geraumer Zeit wird der Großraum Jakarta von dem sich täglich wiederholenden Phänomen des "Verkehrsinfarkts" geplagt : In den Hauptverkehrszeiten der "Rush hour" werden die Straßen der indonesischen Hauptstadt von Millionen von Pendlern, die aus dem Umland zur Arbeit in die Stadt fahren, "überflutet" und nicht selten kommt es zu einem Totalerliegen des Verkehrsflusses. 3 Aufgrund der unzureichenden und völlig überlasteten Möglichkeiten des öffentlichen Nahverkehrs weichen immer mehr Menschen auf den motorisierten Individualverkehr aus. Doch ist das Straßennetz Jakartas mit dem zunehmenden Volumen an Autos und Motorrädern schon lange überlastet und das Problem einer mangelhaften Verkehrsinfrastruktur stellt kein neues dar: Bereits Anfang der 1970er Jahre gab es im Rahmen der Jakarta Metropolitan Area Transportation Study in Abstimmung mit der Siedlungsentwicklung den Entwurf eines Generalverkehrsplans für den Großraum Jakarta, welcher jedoch nicht verwirklicht wurde. 4 Allerdings stellt(e) der Entwurf eines funktionierenden Verkehrsplans nur eine von vielen Herausforderungen dar, denen sich die Stadtplaner Metro-Jakartas im Rahmen eines integrierten Infrastrukturprogramms stellen mussten bzw. noch immer müssen. Seit Jahrzehnten stehen-neben dem anhaltenden Mangel an Wohnraum-die Fragen von effizienten Versorgungs-(Energie /Trinkwasser) bzw. Entsorgungssystemen (Müll/Abwasser) für den Großteil der vorhandenen Wohneinheiten ungelöst im Raum. Der Ausdruck Infrastruktur lässt sich aus den lateinischen Begriffen infra (unterhalb) und structura (ordnen, zusammenfügen) herleiten und "bezeichnet alle langlebigen Grundeinrichtungen personeller, materieller oder institutioneller Art, welche das Funktionieren einer arbeitsteiligen Volkswirtschaft quasi als Unterbau garantieren." 5 Des Weiteren lässt sich der Begriff im Rahmen der städtischen Infrastruktur systematisch in technische sowie soziale Dimensionen unterteilen. Wobei das Teilgebiet der Verkehrsinfrastruktur-ebenso wie die oben genannten Teilbereiche-der technischen Dimension zugeschrieben werden können. Jeglicher Bedarf an Infrastruktur ist in wesentlichem Maße abhängig von der Bevölkerungszahl und-zusammensetzung der Region, die sie bedient. 6 In diesem Zusammenhang stellt das seit der Unabhängigkeit des Landes rasante Bevölkerungswachstum Jakartas und der angrenzenden Vororte wohl die komplexeste Planungskomponente dar. Die Schwierigkeit, ein wirkungsvolles und effizientes städteplanerisches Konzept zu verwirklichen, wird durch den Faktor der Verstädterung vervielfacht. Seit 2009 wohnen weltweit

This article provides an answer to what has been called the biggest problem in theorizing and understanding planning: the ambivalence about power found among planning researchers, theorists, and students. The author narrates how he came to work with issues of power and gives an example of how the methodology he developed for power studies—phronetic planning research—may be employed in practice. Phronetic planning research follows the tradition of power studies running from Machiavelli and Nietzsche to Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu. It focuses on four value-rational questions: (1) Where are we going with planning? (2) Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? (3) Is this development desirable? (4) What should be done? These questions are exemplified for a specific instance of Scandinavian urban planning. The author finds that the questions, and their answers, make a difference to planning in practice. They make planning research matter.

As megaprojects have become ubiquitous, their real benefits and costs have come under increased scrutiny. We interviewed Bent Flyvbjerg, who has extensively studied megaproject development. Flyvbjerg has found systematic problems in the development process: by intentionally misrepresenting information and deliberately disregarding risks, proponents instigate projects that result in fewer benefits and higher costs than promised.

The Supplementary Green Book Guidance on Optimism Bias (HM Treasury 2003) with reference to the Review of Large Public Procurement in the UK (Mott MacDonald 2002) notes that there is a demonstrated, systematic, tendency for project appraisers to be overly optimistic and that to redress this tendency appraisers should make explicit, empirically based adjustments to the estimates of a project’s costs, benefits, and duration. HM Treasury recommends that these adjustments be based on data from past projects or similar projects elsewhere, and adjusted for the unique characteristics of the project in hand. In the absence of a more specific evidence base, HM Treasury has encouraged departments to collect data to inform future estimates of optimism, and in the meantime use the best available data. In response to this, the Department for Transport (henceforth DfT), has contracted Bent Flyvbjerg in association with COWI to undertake the consultancy assignment "Procedures for dealing with Optimism Bias in Transport Planning". The present Guidance Document is the result of this assignment.

"Over budget, over time, over and over again" appears to be an appropriate slogan for large, complex infrastructure projects. This article explains why cost, benefits, and time forecasts for such projects are systematically over-optimistic in the planning phase. The underlying reasons for forecasting errors are grouped into three categories: delusions or honest mistakes; deceptions or strategic manipulation of information or processes; or bad luck. Delusion and deception have each been addressed in the management literature before, but here they are jointly considered for the first time. They are specifically applied to infrastructure problems in a manner that allows both academics and practitioners to understand and implement the suggested corrective procedures. The article provides a framework for analyzing the relative explanatory power of delusion and deception. It also suggests a simplified framework for analyzing the complex principal-agent relationships that are involved in the approval and construction of large infrastructure projects, which can be used to improve forecasts. Finally, the article illustrates reference class forecasting, an outside view de-biasing technique that has proven successful in overcoming both delusion and deception in private and public investment decisions.

Niccolò Machiavelli, the founder of modern political and administrative thought, made clear that an understanding of politics requires distinguishing between formal politics and what later, with Ludwig von Rochau, would become known as Realpolitik. No such distinction has been employed in the study of rationality. Yet I will argue that distinguishing between formal rationality and real rationality is as important for the understanding of rationality and planning as the distinction between formal politics and Realpolitik has been for understanding politics.

The purpose of the present chapter is to demonstrate how social scientists may engage with mass media to have their research impact public deliberation, policy and practice. Communicating research to practice is part and parcel of applied phronesis and not something external to it. Even in Aristotle's original definition of phronesis, laid down more than two millennia ago, the knowledge–action relationship is clear. A defining characteristic of phronesis is, in Aristotle's words, that it is ‘reason capable of action’ (The Nicomachean Ethics, 1976: Bk VI, 1140a24–1140b12). Phronetic research results (‘reason’) are therefore results only to the extent they have an impact on practice (‘action’). In public affairs, reason is made capable of action by effectively having reason enter the public sphere and public deliberation. It is reason times exposure in the public sphere that matters, not reason alone. Today, mass media dominate the public sphere in liberal democracies. The relationship of research with media therefore needs to be reflected. However, to my knowledge no study exists that describes in detail this aspect of phronetic research. Even in social science as a whole, studies of how scholars work with mass media to secure public impact of their research seem rare (Bagdikian 2004; McCombs 2004; Bryant and Oliver 2009). This, then, is the purpose of the present chapter: to begin to close this gap in our knowledge of social science and phronesis. Because the field is underexplored, it was found to be prudent to start with a phenomenological case study. The study shows how a group of phronetic social scientists, including the author, engaged with media, including world-leading titles such as The New York Times, in order to place their research results on the public agenda and initiate change in their chosen field of interest: megaproject policy and management.

Lagos is the most populous and top economic performing state out of Nigeria's 36 states. Over the last decade, the mega-city has experienced remarkable state-building and institutional development that has garnered media attention, international attraction, and scholarly interest. Nic Cheeseman and Diane de Gramont’s (2017) paper "Managing a Mega-city: Learning the Lessons" is one revealing scholarly work that aims to understand the conditions in which Lagos was able to achieve its urban reform. It shows how federalism, political opposition, and will, robust economic potential, as well as mobilization of public and elite support, were all critical in establishing reforms and overcoming accompanying barriers. The authors conclude that the required conditions for state-building in Lagos are uncommon and only possible in a few African states, therefore Lagos lessons cannot be easily practiced elsewhere.
This review will critically examine Cheeseman and Gramont’s (2017) article focusing on the methodology, key arguments, and its relevance to wider literature identifying critical themes in African governance and urban-development politics scholarship. While this paper agrees that the actual conditions that enable Lagos urban reforms are rare in other African countries, it concludes  that Lagos lessons could be applied elsewhere when used as a model within Nigeria states and other decentralized African countries.

This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of traffic forecasts in transportation infrastructure projects. The sample used is the largest of its kind, covering 210 projects in 14 nations worth U.S.$59 billion. The study shows with very high statistical significance that forecasters generally do a poor job of estimating the demand for transportation infrastructure projects. For 9 out of 10 rail projects, passenger forecasts are overestimated; the average overestimation is 106%. For half of all road projects, the difference between actual and forecasted traffic is more than ±20%. The result is substantial financial risks, which are typically ignored or downplayed by planners and decision makers to the detriment of social and economic welfare. Our data also show that forecasts have not become more accurate over the 30-year period studied, despite claims to the contrary by forecasters. The causes of inaccuracy in forecasts are different for rail and road projects, with political causes playing a larger role for rail than for road. The cure is transparency, accountability, and new forecasting methods. The challenge is to change the governance structures for forecasting and project development. Our article shows how planners may help achieve this.

As  megacities  emerge  in  splendor, so  also do  threats  to  security  and sustainability of these cities. Earlier research found out that the leading threat amongst several security and safety threats in megacities are organized crimes. Since technology is involved in all facets of megacities, including the threats therein, this paper seeks to stimulate scientific curiosity in finding out effective and sustainable ways of harnessing technology  in  readiness,  to  protect  these  cities  from  threats  rather  than  reactively responding to them.

A  Megacity  Digital  Forensic  Readiness  Model  (MEDFORM)  is proposed in this presentation.

Do different types of megaprojects have different cost overruns? This apparently simple question is at the heart of research at the University of Oxford aimed at understanding the characteristics of megaprojects, particularly in terms of how they are established, run and concluded. In this study, we set out to investigate cost overruns in the Olympic Games. To do so, we examined the costs of the Games over half a century, including both summer and winter Olympics. We looked at the evolution of final reported costs and compared these to the costs established in the Games bids, submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) up to seven years before the Games occurred. In so doing we established the largest dataset of its kind, and documented for the first time in a consistent fashion the costs and cost overruns for the Olympic Games, from 1960 to 2012. We discovered that the Games stand out in two distinct ways compared to other megaprojects: (1) The Games overrun with 100 per cent consistency. No other type of megaproject is this consistent regarding cost overrun. Other project types are typically on budget from time to time, but not the Olympics. (2) With an average cost overrun in real terms of 179 per cent – and 324 per cent in nominal terms – overruns in the Games have historically been significantly larger than for other types of megaprojects, including infrastructure, construction, ICT, and dams. The data thus show that for a city and nation to decide to host the Olympic Games is to take on one of the most financially risky type of megaproject that exists, something that many cities and nations have learned to their peril. For the London 2012 Games, we find that: (1) With sports-related real costs currently estimated at USD14.8 billion, London is on track to become the most costly Olympics ever. (2) With a projected cost overrun of 101 per cent in real terms, overrun for London is below the historical average for the Games, but not significantly so. (3) The London cost overrun is, however, significantly higher than overruns for recent Games since 1999. London therefore is reversing a positive trend of falling cost overruns for the Games.

Taken together, the works of Jurgen Habermas and Michel Foucault highlight an essential tension in modernity. This is the tension between the normative and the real, between what should be done and what is actually done. Understanding this tension is crucial to understanding modern democracy, what it is and what it could be. It has been argued that an effective way of making democracy stronger is to strengthen civil society. This article contains a comparative analysis of the central ideas of Habermas and Foucault as they pertain to the question of democracy and civil society. More specifically, the discourse ethics of Habermas is contrasted with the power analytics and ethics of Foucault evaluating their usefulness for those interested in understanding, and bringing about, democratic social change.

As megaprojects have become ubiquitous, their real benefits and costs have come under increased scrutiny. We interviewed Bent Flyvbjerg, who has extensively studied megaproject development. Flyvbjerg has found systematic problems in the development process: by intentionally misrepresenting information and deliberately disregarding risks, proponents instigate projects that result in fewer benefits and higher costs than promised.

Understanding urban operations are becoming of increasing importance to the military, police, fire service, medical, and humanitarian actors. The dynamics of urban settings involve complexity at many levels, including density and terrain. Urban densities entail diverse population concentrated in compact spaces, structures and buildings, traffic congestion, and complex multi-level infrastructures such as subways, underground tunnels, and passageways. Urban operating environments range from built-up areas (towns and small cities) through metropolitan areas, and increasingly megacities and emerging megacity complexes or clusters. Range of Action Operating in the urban environment is increasingly likely as the world becomes increasingly urban. More than half the world's population lives in urban areas and a quarter of that population lives in cities with over a million people. Sun Tzu cautioned against urban warfare and besieging cities. It is becoming difficult to heed the traditional maxims about avoiding cities in battle as urban terrain becomes more common and terrorists and insurgents bring the battle to the streets. Beyond the inherent complicating factors of operating in urban settings, an urban operation involves a range of actions and potentially interactive problem-sets. The most common problem set is traditional war or war fighting (if there is

If we want to empower and re-enchant organization research, we need to do three things. First, we must drop all pretence, however indirect, at emulating the success of the natural sciences in producing cumulative and predictive theory, for their approach simply  does not work in organization research or any of  the social sciences (for the full argument, see Flyvbjerg 2001). Second, we must address problems that matter to groups in the local, national, and global communities in which we live, and we must do it in ways that matter; we must focus on issues of context, values, and power, as advocated by great social scientists from Aristotle and Machiavelli  to Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu. Finally, we must effectively and dialogically communicate the results of our research to our fellow citizens and carefully listen to their feedback. If we do this – focus on specific values and interests in the context of particular power relations – we may successfully transform organization research into an activity performed in public for organizational publics, sometimes to clarify, sometimes to intervene, sometimes to generate new perspectives, and always to serve as eyes and ears in ongoing efforts to understand the present and to deliberate about the future. We may, in short, arrive at organization research that matters.

According to a recent WHO report around 100 million people are reduced to poverty every year due to costs associated with illness. Contributing to the growing literature on the economic burden of illness, this article examines the indirect and direct costs of illness that occurs on household level, describes its influence on treatment seeking behaviour and assesses its impact on household welfare. The results presented are based on an empirical study carried out in slum settlements in the megacity of Chennai in South India. It can be shown that the poorer section of slum dwellers suffer disproportionally from catastrophic illness costs despite the existence of free public health services. Policies need to be implemented that enhances the resilience of poor households against illness costs.

This paper reviews recent research on mega‐urbanization, showing that it is an increasingly common form of urban growth. This includes research on the spatial expansion of cities through mega‐scale urban agglomerations like mega‐ cities and mega‐regions; it also includes research on the intensification of urban land use through mega‐projects. The paper outlines strategies for researching the geographies of mega‐urbanization, based on recent research in urban studies. Empirically, urban researchers are treating mega‐urbanization as an increasingly ordinary part of everyday urban life. Methodologically, urban researchers are adopting longitudinal approaches for assessing the complex temporalities of mega‐projects and for evaluating gaps between planning promises and planning outcomes. Theoretically, urban research is taking a pragmatic approach to mega‐urbanization, viewing it critically but also aiming to constructively intervene in mega‐project planning.

Bangladesh, India and Pakistan formerly known as
Indian subcontinent presently belong to the most
densely part of the world. A few top ranked mega cities
are situated in this region. Due to the city economic
innovation, heritage has become a secondary point for
interest. The city governance is also weak or at times
ignorant regarding heritage protection related topics.
The heritage buildings in Dhaka is currently either in
ruined condition or without proper attention, and in
extreme cases, buildings already have faced an ultimate
demolition. The heritage management topic is rather
ignored in events of the city development matters.
This scenario is however common in mentioned above
countries. The current practice of heritage conservation
primarily focuses on particular buildings that associate
with some historic or iconic importance. However,
the sites and surroundings that attached to those
particular buildings, the context where it evolved are
hardly considered for the heritage management. Such
examples can be seen in old parts of Dhaka, Bangladesh,
where the archaeologists and the conservationists
are working hard to preserve few historic buildings
that were selected based on its unusual feature. As a
consequence, the adjacent buildings have been already
demolished and those particular historic buildings lie
amidst a neighborhood encouraging completely stark
contemporary multistoried building made of glass and
concrete. Often the views of the buildings are blocked
and eventually become the reason of disappearance.
In recent years several valuable buildings have been
found in old Dhaka which are in regular use and in
declining state. The functions of the buildings frequently
resemble their original usage still the buildings are not
surviving due extensive use. The paper focuses on one
example of such building known and ‘Reboti Bhaban’
from 127, Sutrapur of old Dhaka which is experiencing
deterioration because of it intensive use and lack of
proper maintenance. Along with analysis of primary and secondary materials on a mixed methodological
approach, the paper presents the reasons behind its
gradual declination and attempts to propose possible
solutions to safeguard such properties in South Asian
city context.

For over fifty years, successive waves of critique have underscored that the apolitical character of much of Political Science research betrays the founding mission of the discipline to have science serve democracy. The Caucus for a New Political Science was originally based on such a critique, and the Perestroika movement in the discipline included a call for more problem-driven as opposed to theory- or method-driven work that would better connect Political Science research to ongoing political struggles. In recent years, movements for a public Sociology and public Anthropology as well as dissonant movements in Economics and related fields have added to the insistence that social science research was too often disconnected from the real world. Phronetic Social Science has emerged out of the ferment for change in the social sciences, starting with the much-debated book by Bent Flyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter (Cambridge 2001). Flyvbjerg critiqued the social sciences for mimicking the natural sciences while proposing an alternative approach that focuses research on helping people address the problems they are facing in the context they are facing them. Today, Phronetic Social Science goes beyond the call for an alternative approach to social inquiry and its growing adherents are providing evidence that this alternative approach to doing research can enrich the social sciences by more effectively connecting research to efforts to address real world problems as people experience them. This essay provides a genealogy of efforts to connect Political Science to politics, a review of the major critiques of mainstream research, an explication of the rationale for more problem-driven, mixed methods research, a specification of the key principles of the phronetic approach, and examples of its application in the public realm. The essay concludes with implications for realizing a more political Political Science by way of taking a phronetic approach.

Vaclav Havel observed that a strong civil society is a crucial condition of strong democracy. Empowering civil society is a central concern for the project of democracy, just as the question of how best to think about such empowerment is important to social and political theory. But what is ‘civil society’? A search for clear definitions in the relevant literature is in vain. Not because the concept lacks definitions; rather the definitions are too multiple and varied to bring clarity. Most writers on civil society agree, however, that civil society has an institutional core constituted by voluntary associations outside the sphere of the state and the economy. Such associations range from, for example, churches, cultural associations, sport clubs and debating societies to independent media, academies, groups of concerned citizens, grass-roots initiatives and organizations of gender, race and sexuality, all the way to occupational associations, political parties and labour unions (Habermas 1992a: 453).

Back cover text: This book aims to enlarge the understanding of decision-making on mega-projects and suggest recommendations for a more effective, efficient and democratic approach. Authors from different scientific disciplines address various aspects of the decision-making process, such as management characteristics and cost-benefit analysis, planning and innovation and competition and institutions. The subject matter is highly diverse, but certain questions remain at the forefront. For example, how do we deal with protracted preparation processes, how do we tackle risks and uncertainties, and how can we best divide the risks and responsibilities among the private and public players throughout the different phases of the project? - Presenting a state-of-the-art overview, based on experiences and visions of authors from Europe and North America, this unique book will be of interest to practitioners of large-scale project management, politicians, public officials and private organisations involved in mega-project decision-making. It will also appeal to researchers, consultants and students dealing with substantial engineering projects, complex systems, project management and transport infrastructure.

A rapid urbanisation rate, coupled with an increasing global population, equates to a surge in energy demand; threatening sustainable transitions from fossil fuel. However, faced with the impacts of climate change and increasing geopolitical accords, cities are turning towards Renewable Energy sources to meet this demand, but this is a complex matter in cities where land availability is scarce for the construction of new, or larger, power plants. This is accentuated in Megacities, where the urban fabric hosts an incredibly compact and dense population, where land unavailability extends to large surfaces. As the number of Megacities is expected to increase in the near future, the need for decentralised and sustainable solutions that are technically and economically viable for both the state and the private sector need to be sought. This paper dwells into an extensive review of literature studying energy generation in the case of Megacities, and highlight the dimensions required for them to achieve increased sustainability and resilience. A proposed model aimed at generating decentralised grid networks is proposed based on the study of urban complexity theories applicable to energy and urban morphology. This paper is aimed towards Urban and Energy Planners and Policy Makers looking at how to power Megacities as well as cities facing rapid urbanisation.