The New Companion will provide a guide to the major themes in urban studies. It will involve scholarship that takes the city as its starting point as well as contributions that draw on other major intellectual currents which are then applied to urban issues. It will provide students and scholars with a contemporary update on urban thinking that builds on well established debates in the field. Urban studies has come to the fore over the last two decades as cities are increasingly central to an understanding of economic, social, cultural, environmental and political issues. The overarching context is the place of cities within an increasingly globalized and networked world, and in the social, cultural and political changes of modernity/postmodernity. At a global level cities are the sites of key social and economic transformations. More people live in cities and more people are affected by urban processes than ever before. The increasing importance of cities means that urban scholarship has drawn on an expanding range of disciplines. The multidisciplinary mix is an essential feature of this New Companion, which deals with contemporary analysis of cities as well as some of the key issues in cities. Since the publication of the original Companion, intellectual developments have taken place most notably addressing the materiality of cities, networks, and the environment. The intention is to present the current state of scholarship, incorporating these new debates. In the past the field has been dominated by Western understandings of urban processes. This volume will include contributions from non Western perspectives, and as much as possible the urban processes analysed will be illustrated by cities around the world. Countries in Asia, notably China and India, have come to play an increasingly important role on the world stage, and urban development, in China particularly, has been dramatic. There will be a greater focus on Asia in the New Companion, nevertheless in recognition of the significance of the American market, a large number of contributions will come from US authors.