Like Shanghai, Jakarta, Beirut and São Paulo, cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore are redefining what it means to be urban in the twenty-first century. The material fabric and everyday life of our cities are undergoing radical transformations, bringing with them new vectors of inequality and conflict, just as they open out new possibilities. Research on 'Emerging Urbanism' at Sarai will focus on the rapid transformation of the urban landscape through large-scale infrastructural interventions. It will examine the pressures being brought to bear on the urban poor (the majority of the inhabitants of the city) as well as on other marginal populations by the intense pressure to develop high-value real estate at the cost of the habitation and work practices of the urban majority. There will also be an emphasis on the significance of risk, as accelerated transformation conjures up a host of new projections of contingency in the shifting landscape of location, occupation, identity and everyday needs as these are negotiated by governments and affected populations.