Book excerpt: When this title was first published in 1981, growing concern for the future of cities and those who inhabited them, stimulated by trends in global urbanisation, had resulted in much emphasis being placed on a problem-solving approach to the study of the city. The chapters in this edited collection, a companion to Urban Problems and Planning in the Developed World (Routledge Revivals, 2013), consider the problems and planning activities in a number of cities across the world. Varied case-studies, including Mexico City, Bogota and Shanghai, reflect the differing economic, cultural and political regimes of the modern world and ensure the continued value of this comprehensive work.