Due to the high profile of the political situation in South Africa, developments in other countries in the region tend to be overlooked. Yet the area of Southern Africa is one of the most volatile in the Third World. The central aim of this book is to examine the spatial dimensions of contemporary change in the region and to explore the likely future directions of such change. Existing literature tends to ignore the impact of political change on the urbanization process. Moreover, it has also tended to focus on Africa as a whole or one particular state. Written by geographers and planners, Urban and Regional Change in Southern Africa brings a new dimension to this subject. The authors examine change in both the cities themselves and the regions in which they are located. The overall result is to set urban change in Southern Africa within its regional context and to contrast the impact that urbanization and political change has had in particular states, linked to each other by common concerns. The book also examines why Southern Africa should be more volatile than other developing regions, despite having undergone the same process of urbanization.