Over the last twenty years there has been a revolution in production, from one based in nation states, to global economic networks and informational capitalism. Over the same period, and in order to explain what is happening, critical urban theory has undergone a similar revolution. Fundamental to this change has been a movement from ‘pure’ social and economic theory to incorporate the creation of spaces and places. The rate of change has been such that theoretical explanation of the world we live in has had difficulty in keeping up with the accelerating pace of social change. Using international examples of development, including from the South East Asian region, this course first builds a theoretical scaffolding that explains the forces underlying the global political economy, prior to a series of case studies of capital cities and the urban projects currently being built within them. The course therefore integrates the real world of development and urban design, with the world of theory. In the process a comprehensive picture is constructed of the growth of cities and the complexity of urban space.