This book was born out of the frustrations of a group of urban planners and researchers who have increasingly felt the inadequacy of the planning systems and policies introduced to prepare cities for the future in an increasingly neoliberalising world. As this shortfall was becoming more evident among urban policymakers, planners and researchers in different parts of the world, a group of discontent researchers sought new approaches to cope with the increasing vulnerabilities of urban systems in the wake of growing socio-economic and ecological problems, privatisation of infrastructure services, fear and distrust in society and a loss of ecological services on the one hand; and decreases in welfare services and quality of urban environments, which have been shed by the appealing business and commercial centres, of fi ce spaces and the luxurious residential areas on the other.