Tony Champion is Professor of Population Geography at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Graeme Hugo is Professor of Geography and Director of National Key Centre in Social Applications of Geographical Information Systems at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Contents: Part I: Introduction: Introduction: moving beyond the urban-rural dichotomy, Tony Champion and Graeme Hugo; Lest we re-invent the wheel: lessons from previous experience, Tony Champion; World urbanization: trends and prospects, Hania Zlotnik. Part II: Regional Perspectives on Settlement Change: The fading of city-suburb and metro-nonmetro distinctions in the United States, William H. Frey; Population dynamics and urbanization in Latin America: concepts and data limitations, Alfredo E. Lattes, Jorge Rodríguez and Miguel Villa; Urbanization trends in Asia: the conceptual and definitional challenges, Gavin W. Jones; Analyzing urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa, Philippe Bocquier. Part III: Case Studies: The transformation of the urban system in Mexico, Gustavo Garza; Urban development and population redistribution in Delhi: implications for categorizing population, Véronique Dupont; Urbanization and metropolitanization in Brazil: trends and methodological challenges, José Marcos Pinto da Cunha; Changing urbanization processes and In Situ rural-urban transformation: reflections on China's settlement definitions, Yu Zhu. Part IV: Conceptualizing Settlement Systems: An evolutionary approach to settlement systems, Denise Pumain; The conceptualization and analysis of urban systems: a North American perspective, Larry S. Bourne and Jim Simmons; The nature of rurality in postindustrial society, David L. Brown and John B. Cromartie; Rethinking 'Rurality', Keith Halfacree. Part V: Moving From The Conceptual To The Operational: Multiple dimensions of settlement systems: coping with complexity, Mike Coombes; Using remote sensing and geographic information systems to identify the underlying properties of urban environments, John R. Weeks; Reflections on the review of metropolitan area standards in the United States, 1990 - 2000, James D. Fitzsimmons and Michael R. Ratcliffe. Part VI: The Way Forward: Conclusions and recommendations, Graeme Hugo and Tony Champion; Bibliography; Index.

This book brings together a leading team of social scientists to present the latest information on urbanization around the world, highlighting examples of development patterns that are not adequately captured by the UN's type of reporting systems and drawing attention to other ways of representing current trends.