Ross King is Professorial Fellow in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, Australia. As a frequent visitor to East and Southeast Asia, he has written extensively on the cities and communities of that region. His research deals with contested identities in Asian cities and the ways in which architecture, urban design, urban planning, and newer media are mobilized (manipulated, distorted) in such contests. He also publishes extensively on the phenomenon of informal settlements in Asian cities and on formality and informality as processes. He is the author of Emancipating Space: Geography, Architecture, and Urban Design; Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya: Negotiating Urban Space in Malaysia; and Reading Bangkok. 332