In this chapter, the focus shifts from ship to shore in order to explore metropolitan writing that captured the distinctive urban-littoral spaces of the Victorian port city. Forging connections between the urban ethnography of Henry Mayhew and Charles Booth, with accounts of ‘sailortown’ and its attendant ‘waterside characters’ in novels by Herman Melville (Redburn: His First Voyage), Charles Dickens (Our Mutual Friend), and James Joyce (Ulysses), this chapter reveals the urban waterfront to be an important edge space that functioned as both a working-class habitat shaped by waterside industry and an imaginative locus for a range of nineteenth-century writers. The analysis demonstrates that despite its physical location on the edge of the city, and its peripheral status within literary history, the watery city was a site for the production of new narratives of modernity at the turn of the twentieth century.

Soon after the project was announced in 2007, the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) began putting together plans to acquire land. Unsurprisingly, a number of middle-class and wealthy neighbourhoods refused to move in order to make way for the construction. Two working-class neighbourhoods, densely populated and centrally located, entered the arduous process of negotiating with the BMRCL. As they were in close proximity to the Central Majestic bus station and railway station, the two neighbourhoods – Basaveshwara Nagara and Jai Bhim Nagara – were also well connected to the other parts of the city.5 Unlike illegal settlements that are often evicted brutally, the two neighbourhoods were offered the chance of consultation and options once they had vacated their homes.

The Introduction starts by considering stand-up in Mort Sahl’s terms, as ‘a primitive form of theatre’. Using a quote by Tony Allen to pin down its key feature, it argues that stand-up is defined by centring on the performer themself, a direct relationship between performer and an active audience, and the appearance and possibility of spontaneity. After briefly considering the history of stand-up in the USA and UK, it goes on to recount the less familiar story of how it developed in Australia, from the emergence of Rod Quantock to the rise of the modern comedy club in the 1980s. It then considers its rapid expansion around the world in the last 30 years – paying particular attention to India, Estonia, and Belgium – and its continuing relationship with the English language even in non-anglophone countries. It finishes with an explanation of the scope and structure of the rest of the book.

Global capitalism is in deep crisis. The current moment in world capitalism is defined by three key developments. First, the system has become universal through globalization processes that date to the late twentieth century. Second, the system is undergoing a new round of restructuring and transformation based on a much more advanced digitalization and financialization of the entire global economy and society. Third, the system faces an unprecedented and multidimensional crisis that points to the impending exhaustion of global capitalism's capacity for renewal. The crisis is economic or structural, one of overaccumulation and chronic stagnation. It is a crisis of social reproduction. It is political, a crisis of state legitimacy, capitalist hegemony, and geopolitical conflict. It is ecological, with the threat of the collapse of the biosphere. The ruling groups launched a vast counteroffensive from the 1970s and on against the working and popular classes to reconstitute the hegemony of capital as a transnational capitalist class emerged. The dialectical approach and radical political economy are the tools for analyzing and theorizing the crisis of global capitalism. The study points us in the direction of a renewal of Marxist crisis theory and offers a bold theory of global capitalist exhaustion.

This chapter explores the transition from the traditional linear economy, defined by the ‘take–make–dispose’ model, to a circular economy, with a focus on its application in creating liveable cities. With global material consumption and urbanisation increasing, cities are facing significant challenges, including resource scarcity, environmental degradation, and growing emissions. The circular economy offers a sustainable solution by promoting resource efficiency through recycling, reusing, and regenerating materials. This approach aims to decouple economic growth from resource consumption, enhancing urban resilience and sustainability. The chapter also highlights the role of circular economy practices in improving liveability within cities. By integrating circular principles into areas such as transportation, energy systems, water management, and the built environment, cities can reduce congestion, air pollution, and waste while promoting healthier urban living environments. The 5R framework – reduce, reuse, recycle, restore, and recover – is introduced as a core strategy for embedding circularity into city functions. Additionally, the chapter identifies key enablers, such as government policies, digital technology, and public engagement, that support the circular transition. Through these measures, cities can become sustainable, resilient hubs of innovation and prosperity, balancing economic growth with environmental protection and improving the quality of life for their residents.

Within cities across the world, communal violence has often led to the formation of neighbourhoods segregated on religious lines. Colonies identified by the religion of its residents are now found in Indian metropolises such as Ahmedabad, Mumbai and New Delhi, occupied mainly by the Muslims who were pushed involuntarily to these spaces after decades of sociopolitical marginalisation and targeted communal violence. Due to their identification with the religious identity of its residents, these colonies faced systematic state neglect and lack of infrastructural development pushing them further towards spatial stigmatisation and social segregation (Gayer and Jaffrelot 2012; Mahadevia 2002). Given their specific context, these spaces are identified in both academic literature and policy papers as ‘ghettos’, pointing in turn to the many stigmas attached to them. These neighbourhoods are part of a city but ‘insulated’ and ‘do not benefit from the same kind of attention from the state as other parts of the city’ (Jaffrelot and Thomas 2012: 70). Tellingly, they lack state-run schools, colleges, technical institutions, healthcare amenities and other basic facilities like sanitation and water (Jaffrelot and Thomas 2012: 70).

This chapter examines the many exclusions and marginalities faced by residents of one such neighbourhood in New Delhi called Tilak Vihar. The context of this West Delhi space is distinct from other neighbourhoods that are formed as a result of communal violence. Tilak Vihar is a Sikh neighbourhood of nearly 1,000 families headed by the widows of those men who were killed in the 1984 anti-Sikh violence in Delhi. It is important to emphasise here that Tilak Vihar is not a self-segregated space. Tilak Vihar was demarcated by the state in order to rehabilitate women who lost their husbands in the 1984 violence and were hence displaced.

This chapter explores the role of a sustainable built environment in fostering circular economy principles within liveable cities. It highlights the importance of integrating sustainability into the urban infrastructure to create resilient, resource-efficient, and adaptable urban environments. With cities contributing significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions, there is a growing need to transition towards more circular models that prioritise reducing waste, reusing materials, and regenerating natural systems. The chapter discusses the key components of a sustainable built environment, such as energy-efficient construction, green architecture, and eco-friendly urban design. It emphasises how adopting circular economy principles in the built environment can help mitigate the environmental impact of cities by promoting resource conservation, reducing waste, and enhancing urban resilience. Furthermore, the chapter introduces regulatory, financial, and informational mechanisms that can support this transition, including emission-based taxes, pollution charges, and eco-certification programmes. By fostering innovation and collaboration between public and private sectors, cities can implement sustainable practices that balance economic growth with environmental stewardship. The chapter concludes by highlighting the importance of community engagement and public policy in shaping a sustainable built environment that contributes to the overall goal of creating liveable, circular cities.