This book presents a set of essays on the globalization and intra-urban dynamics of the Asian cities conducted by Taiwanese and French researchers. It covers four main themes: “culture-led regeneration projects,” “dynamics of second-tier cities,” “urban redevelopment and land issues,” and “new urban spaces of regulation, associational life, and civic action.”
It involved comparing research subject priorities in this field as well as the approaches chosen to deal with them within a geographical zone extended from Northeast to southern Asia. Rather than a comparison between Western and Asian visions of the same urban objects, the project aimed to highlight differences and/or similarities in the approaches of scientific communities, inevitably influenced by national issues.
With great articulation and discourse between urban reality and theories, it also observes distinctive approaches of urban research teams respectively in France and Taiwan.

Aveline-Dubach, Natacha, PhD and Habilitation in Geography, is a research director at le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), affiliated to the laboratory Géographie-Cités and the graduate school of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. She spent eleven years in Asia, where she was visiting scholar in various universities (Tokyo, Kyoto, Waseda, Keio, Hong Kong universities). Her research focuses on land and property issues—including funeral land—in Asian cities.
Bastide, Loïs is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Geneva. His main interest is in the sociology of space and encompasses transnational studies, urban studies, migration sociology, and the sociology of work. His researches have focused on labor migration in Southeast Asia for several years, with fieldworks spread between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. He currently works on global health issues as well as the sociology of natural disasters in Indonesia, Japan, the United States, and Switzerland.
Buhnik, Sophie is an alumnus of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris), and a PhD candidate in Geography at University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, where she is affiliated to the laboratory Géographie-Cités. Her research focuses on problems of access to urban resources related to urban shrinkage processes in the Osaka Metropolitan Area. She has been awarded a scholarship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science in 2012, and conducted her research at the Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto from April 2012 to April 2013.
Chen, Dung-Sheng（陳東升） is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at National Taiwan University. His research interests are sociology of organizations, economic sociology, and urban sociology. Currently he is engaging in a research on alternative economic institutions and social innovation.
Chen, Hsiao-Wei（陳曉偉） obtains his PhD from Geography Department at National Taiwan University. His research interests are in urban studies, especially the urban public space and public life, and popular music studies. The focus on street music is his attempt to link the two diverse research fields.
Chien, Shiuh-Shen（簡旭伸） is an Associate Professor in development geography at National Taiwan University, has published widely on development geography, geography of globalization, transnational studies, and political economy of urban and regional development. Dr. Chien’s empirical focuses involve the Global South in general and post-socialist China in particular.
Dupont, Véronique, PhD in Economic Demography, is a research director at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD) and associated member of the Centre for Indian and South Asian Studies (Paris). She was the Director of the Centre de Sciences Humaines of New Delhi from 2003 to 2007. Her main research themes have been the interrelations between the transformations of metropolitan territories, population mobility and urban policies, including slum policies and the processes of socio-spatial exclusion, with a focus on Indian mega-cities.
Fanchette, Sylvie, PhD in Geography, is a researcher at IRD. Her research interests are mainly in the process of urbanization in highly populated rural areas of some deltas (Nile, Niger, and Red River). Her recent research and publications in Vietnam have focused on craft villages around Hanoi and the process of peri-urbanization in the context of the metropolization of the political capital city.
Fau, Nathalie, PhD in Geography, is an Associate Professor at University Paris 7 and temporarily affiliated to the Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC) in Bangkok. Since the end of the 1990’s, her work has focused on two major lines of research. The first studies new centralities and urban regions that have developed as a result of globalization; the second focuses on cross-border and transnational regions in Southeast Asia.
Franck, Manuelle, PhD and Habilitation in Geography, is a President of the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Cultures (INALCOParis) and a Professor at the Department of Southeast Asian studies. Her research interests are mainly on the fields of urban and regional studies. Her recent research programs especially focus on the impact of global dynamics on second-tier cities and on the impact of transnational integration on urban hierarchies.
Hong, Dong-Li（洪冬力） is a post-graduate student at the Institution of Building and Planning of National Taiwan University, has been working on research topics of urban transformation and cross-border governance. His current research focuses on the changing urban life that has been mediated by public communication infrastructure.
Hsiao, Hsin-Huang Michael（蕭新煌） is a Distinguished Research Fellow and Director of Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica and Professor of Sociology, National Taiwan University. His specialization of research includes civil society, middle classes, new democracy, environmental sociology, and Hakka studies. He also served as a National Policy Advisor to President of Taiwan during 1996-2006. His recent publications include Taiwan’s social movements march again, Non-profit Sector: Organization and Practice, Changing Faces of Hakka in Southeast Asia, Public Opinion in Taiwan and Hong Kong, among others.
Hsiao, Yatan（蕭亞譚） is a CEO of Pegasus Tea House. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow of Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (2009/07/01-2011/06/30). His research interests focus on third sector studies, urban middle classes, NGO and NPO governance, and community empowerment with a comparative sociological perspective.
Huang, Liling（黃麗玲） is an Associate Professor and a Director of the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning at National Taiwan University. Her research interests focus on community building, urban policies and globalization theories. Her recent publications include: “Community building in Taiwan: A perspective of social changes and institutional innovations” (2011), “The housing policies and problems in Taipei: Case studies of Taipei city” (2011), ‘Foreign workers and spaces for community life: Taipei’s little Philippines” (2009), “Against the monster of privatisation: Qing-Tien Community’s actions for urban livability in Taipei” (2008).
Jou, Sue-Ching（周素卿）, PhD, is a Professor of Geography at National Taiwan University. Her research interests are mainly in the fields of urban studies, including political economy of urban development, urban and regional governance, and geographies of sustainable city governance. Her recent research and publications focus on corporate landscapes and mega-projects of the global cities in East Asian countries.
Lin, Tzu-Chin（林子欽）, PhD, is a Professor in Land Economics at National Chengchi University. He has a long-standing interest in how land market operates and what policies or institutions are best suited for the society. He is currently exploring the impacts of fragmented ownership in land on land prices and subsequent land redevelopment in Taiwan.
Roulleau-Berger, Laurence, PhD and Habilitation in Sociology, is a Research Director at CNRS, affiliated to the laboratory Triangle (ENS Lyon). She was a Visiting Professor in 2006 at Institute of Sociology, CASS, and in 2011 in Beijing University. Her research focuses on urban segregation and intermediate spaces, work and employment, new migrations and multipolar economies in Europe and in China. Recently, she became involved in an epistemological reflexion on the dewesternization of sociology.
Wu, Yei-Long（吳義隆） obtained his PhD in Urban Planning at National Chengkung University. He is an experienced urban-related practitioner in Taiwan and has worked in several bureaus of the Kaohsiung City Government for decades. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Open University of Kaohsiung.