Megastädte im 20. Jahrhundert

Urbanization indisputably ranks among the characteristic features of development in the modern world. A special form of this process is the appearance of mega-cities: metropoles with more than five million inhabitants. The contributions to this volume provide exemplary discussions of the old and new mega-cities of Chicago, Moscow, London, Shanghai, Tokyo, Mexico City, Delhi, Seoul, Lagos, São Paolo and Los Angeles. They deal with the structural conditions of megapolitan developments as well as with their political and social consequences. The comparative historical viewpoint illustrates numerous problems that are of great interest for the current discussion about globalisation: social and political changes, the societal and economic consequences of growth, and the fight against delinquency and poverty.