Quoted: The Making of Global City Regions traces the emergence of each city in the global economy and examines the link between the dynamics of globalization and changing urban governances. The contributors describe how metropolitan leaders deal with the twin phenomena of globalization and the devolution of the state as they adjust to their city's new emerging role in the global system.

Quoted: Last night we saw the final instalment of Blood Sweat and T-shirts, the BBC3 reality TV show about the garment industry in India. We have been fairly critical of the show in previous weeks since it has seemed to focus on the Brit’s shock at their living conditions, but last night’s episode managed to present some really powerful messages and hopefully left viewers with a clear understanding of some of the difficult debates in ethical trade.

Quoted: Riots over rising grain prices are ripping through the developing world and the United Nations warns there's worse to come. Was Malthus right?

Great new site for the Brookings Institution!

Quoted: Sustaining living standards is not the same thing as sustaining people’s freedom to have – or safeguard – what they value and to which they have reason to attach importance. Our reason for valuing particular opportunities need not always lie in their contribution to our living standards.

Quoted: A recent study, presented at a national conference on population policy on 10 December in Sanaa, said their was a widening gap between population growth and economic growth: Yemen has one of the highest population growth rates in the world - 3.2 percent per annum - but its economy is shrinking.

Quoted: This book, the first in Castells' ground-breaking trilogy, is an account of the economic and social dynamics of the new age of information. Based on research in the USA, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, it aims to formulate...

Quoted: This article includes “At home with India’s middle class,” a narrated set of photos provided by three Indian families. Also included are links to an audio file of the article, an interactive exhibit on the country's consumer market, and the full McKinsey Global Institute report on which the article is based.

Quoted: Built to tame the violent annual floods of the 4,000-mile Yangtze River and to harness its power, Three Gorges is now threatening many of the rural residents it was intended to help. Since the dam first cut off the Yangtze's flow in June 2003, parts of the reservoir's shoreline have repeatedly collapsed. Waste from neighboring farms and villages is creating a water-pollution crisis. And by flooding hundreds of square miles of rich farmland, the reservoir has robbed hundreds of thousands of farmers of their livelihoods and overcrowded the remaining land.