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.
"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 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
Journal of Urban Affairs
"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."
