The politics and changing paradigm of megaproject development in metropolitan cities

• This paper introduces the special issue on megaprojects in metropolitan cities.
• It presents results from FP7 research project “Chance2Sustain”.
• The paper engages with literature postulating the emergence of ‘new’ megaprojects.
• It brings into sharper focus the special issue's value-added.
• The introduction reflects on challenges thrown up by megaprojects in cities of the global south.

Although not a recent phenomenon, megaproject building is currently enjoying renewed popularity in large cities across the world. Policy-makers are undertaking major investments in the form of large-scale urban development projects to position their metropolitan cities on a global scale and to scale-up urban infrastructure to meet basic needs of housing and transportation. The aim of this special issue, of which this article is the introduction, is to examine this trend, with a focus on four cities: Cape Town, Durban, Delhi, and Lima. On the basis of empirical case material, the articles analyse the challenges that megaprojects throw up for urban sustainability and discuss the peculiar issues facing cities characterized by extreme social inequalities, limited mobilisation of community groups and growing pressure on governments to implement neoliberal urban development policies. They illustrate how institutional contexts and specific policy instruments in conjunction with territorially grounded social dynamics give rise to distinct patterns of megaproject development. The articles engage critically with recent literature that has postulated the emergence of a new paradigm of megaproject building. The research is an outcome of work conducted in the framework of the “Chance2Sustain” project, funded under the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme.