LAUSR

as genuinely realistic, one may still see it as perpetuating the very exclusion he seeks to avoid by denying the input of actual women from Wimoa’s depicted social class. Pani’s decades spent conducting research among India’s most vulnerable populations is evident in the sheer resonance of the detailed narratives he crafts of Wimoa. But no matter how good of a construct of the female urban underclass he manages to create, he is the one ultimately speaking for them. It is important to mention that he does acknowledge these limitations, noting that, despite the lack of direct input from the excluded, Wimoa’s story was still valued for managing to ‘bring gender, as well as economic and social discrimination, closer to the core of urban theory’ (p. 4). Pani’s theory of action may also be criticised by some as being inherently nonprescriptive in its conceptualisation. This degree of flexibility serves as an advantage in most cases, being able to attend to unique issues with equally unique solutions. However, the theory’s innate openness also makes it vulnerable to being co-opted by biased or ill-intended urban actors, stakeholders and even researchers who may attempt to advocate for perverse versions of what they think the city should be. Therefore, some may see the theory of action as leaving too much room for interpretation, with it possibly being used to deny pathways towards more radical solutions that might be needed in the face of systemic urban injustice and other structural problems. Despite this critique, the book is still to be recommended to academics in urban studies and its related fields, urban practitioners and anyone else interested in understanding more about the urban experience, especially when it comes to the unique circumstances and context of everyday lived realities in cities of the global South. The elucidation of Pani’s theory of action and related concepts is highly applicable and can be adapted to the exploration of any given urban phenomenon across diverse geographic locales and timescales, giving researchers new and exciting tools for conceptualising the urban, the city and their dynamic issues. While not providing prescriptive solutions, the accessibility and openness of the concepts explored offer inherent and untold value in their ability to be used by urban theorists, practitioners, scholars and everyday citizens to reach more comprehensive understandings of the city, their place in it and the actions needed to make it better.