This book takes Amartya Sen's concept of development as freedom and applies it, for the first time, to the challenges of urban development across the globe. Cities are the crucial battleground for the future: they can either become settlements of intense poverty and community conflict or the centres of social, economic and political development. The authors argue that good governance should be not an end, but the means of delivering greater freedom to the inhabitants of a city. Past measures of successful urban development have related to efficiency or the provision of services -- indicators that measure the activities of agencies. A new "Freedom Approach" will engage with local priorities and promote local initiatives, allowing city dwellers themselves to determine how a well-functioning city is to be defined.